Tamer of the Hazard
by DevilKeys Writing
Summary: Takato had always prided himself on being unique. But there comes point where being "one of a kind" is more trouble than it's worth. 3 partners, a cool tattoo and strange abilities? Awesome. Being stalked by evil digimon, hearing murderous voices in your head, and dealing with a temperamental redhead who'd like nothing more than to see you buried in a shallow grave? Not so much.
1. Dreams

Hello, everybody! I'm back with the first chapter of the new Tamer of the Hazard!

There's not much to say about this that hasn't already been said in my messages on the first test version of Tamer of the Hazard. Just keep in mind that I'm taking it back to the beginning of the series, and I'm going to attempt to follow the episodes and put the events of the movies in as well. I'll probably have to watch them all again, but what the hell, it'll give me a feeling of nostalgia!

Anyway, enjoy the new story!

XXXX

Takato Matsuki lay curled up on his bed, whimpering in his sleep.

(Nightmare)

_Leomon had just been deleted and Jeri was sobbing loudly while being comforted by Henry. Takato was enraged, as was WarGrowlmon. _

_"You monster!" Takato shouted and the massive cyborg-dragon digimon charged forward with a feral roar._

_"You're dumber than I thought, Pineapplehead!" Beelzemon smashed WarGrowlmon in the face with his boot, sending the cyborg to the ground._

_"No," Takato growled, "You can't lose, I WON'T ALLOW IT!" he screamed. "I command you to digivolve, NOW!" his D-Arc began to glow dark red._

_**Digivolution error detected. Hazard Evolution, activate.**_

_WarGrowlmon was also encased in that blood red light as he got to his feet, fueled by his Tamer's rage._

_"WarGrowlmon digivolve to..." the light became blindingly bright as the dragon went to the next level. _

_The other Tamers and their digimon stared on in awe and fear. Even Ryo was frozen to his spot as he watched the corrupted evolution occur._

_WarGrowlmon's outline became more massive. His head elongated and his legs disappeared, replaced by a writhing snake-like tail. Enormous wings sprouted from his back as he neared completion. The ground began to shake and crack as the new digimon put out wave after wave of evil energy. No one knew what was happening, but they all knew one thing. The product of this metamorphosis was going to be anything but good._

_A huge explosion of light blinded all who watched, and an earth-shaking roar announced the arrival of the ultimate dragon digimon. A demonic beast. Spawned from fury, fueled by rage, pain, and sorrow. Arguably, the most feared being in the entirety of the Digital World, the embodiment of the Digital Hazard, this was a creature never meant to exist. A beast locked away and guarded by a gallant knight. But now that knight was nowhere to be found, and the locks had been broken. On this day, a true monster was unleashed, and its name was..._

_"MEGIDRAMON!" the twenty story demonic dragon roared, the hazard symbol glowing brightly on its chest. It turned to the demon lord, who stood petrified at the sight._

_"Takato...what have you done?" Henry whispered to himself._

_Rika shakily pulled out her D-Arc and read the information displayed. "Megidramon. Evil Dragon Digimon. Mega level. The most powerful and evil of the four dragon lords. His power is fueled by rage and hatred, he feeds on pain and sorrow, and lives for destruction. He uses his Megiddo Flame and Hell Howling attacks to accomplish his one main goal: total annihilation." the Tamers gulped. If they hadn't been in over their heads before, they most certainly were now._

_Takato began to chuckle ominously. "How does it feel to once again be so utterly outclassed, oh great demon lord?" he mocked._

_Beelzemon's fear was overcome by his anger and his ego. "Shut it, human! Ya' think you're hot shit because you got that overgrown iguana to go Mega? Please. I'll hand it to ya', he's got some power. But he's also got one big, fat, obvious weakness: You." he pulled out his guns, aimed at Takato, and fired._

_But, to everyone's horror, Takato didn't move an inch. Megidramon suddenly flew through the air and landed behind Takato, using his wings to shield his Tamer. The large bullets just bounced harmlessly off of the giant dragon's armored wings. The leathery curtain was retracted to reveal a grinning Takato and an even more enraged beast._

_"Our turn." Takato gave his order without even facing the massive, evil being behind him. "Megidramon, show him the power of the Digital Hazard!" Megidramon gave somewhat of a nod, then took a deep breath._

_"HELL HOWLING!" he roared, unleashing a visible pressure wave. The sound was unbearable. Like the world's largest jet engine, overlapped with something out of Jurassic Park. Humans and digimon alike instinctively clapped their hands over their ears as they yelped and screamed in pain. The attack slammed into Beelzemon like a bullet train at full throttle, easily lifting him off his feet and hurling him hundreds of feet away._

_The demon lord felt his eardrums burst instantly, followed by bones breaking and muscles tearing as he ragdolled across the ground. When he finally came to a stop, his body was wracked with pain and he could see darkness creeping in around the edges of his vision. His brain felt like it was trying to claw its way out through his eye sockets. His sight was blurred so badly that he could only make out the most basic of shapes and colors. Somehow, some way, the demonic biker managed to get to his feet, a testament to his durability and willpower. But he was given no time to recover, as the dragon was on him in no time, moving at speeds unheard of for something its size. With an almost careless swipe of its massive clawed hand, it carved three deep trenches into the ground, just barely missing Beezlemon as he managed to stumble out of harm's way. _

_But he had no hope of avoiding the dragon's serpentine tail, which smashed into his right side and sent him flying once again._

_Beelzemon howled in agony as he landed, clutching his now-shattered right arm. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, dammit! He was supposed to be the one dishing out the beatings, not the one taking them!_

_"Do you surrender?" both Megidramon and Beelzemon glared at the boy. "What?"_

_"I-I'll never surrender to a human and his pet!" Beelzemon shouted as best he could._

_"Meh, it doesn't matter. Megidramon probably wouldn't let you go that easily anyway. As a matter of fact, neither would I." Takato laughed._

_The other Tamers had officially named this side of Takato's personality "Evil Takato". _

_"Now would be a great time for a 'Momentai', Terriermon!" Henry said._

_"Are you crazy? I'm not talking to Takato when he's like this!" Terriermon strengthened his grip on Henry's hair to re-enforce his statement._

_Renamon nodded, surprising everyone. "For once, I agree with the rabbit. Takato it too unpredictable right now. And with a digimon as powerful as Megidarmon at his control, it would be wise not to take the chance of angering him further." the mysterious vixen said. From her demeanor, no one could tell just how hard she was fighting the urge to run as far away as possible. She couldn't run, not if it meant leaving her comrades behind to potentially met their ends at the hands/claws of...whatever Guilmon and his tamer had become._

_Back on the battlefield, Beelzemon was being tossed around like a toy. He got off the occasional Double Impact, but that only served to anger the dragon further. And like a gigantic, reptilian Hulk, the madder Megidramon got, the stronger he became. _

_"MEGIDDO FLAME!" Megidramon unleashed a torrent of white hot flames from his gaping jaws. _

_Beelzemon barely dodged the attack, but was not unscathed. So intense were the flames, that just being near them for only a fraction of a second had scorched his arm. His good arm. That was it, he was done for. With nothing left to lose, Beezlemon snarled and forcibly set his broken right arm arm, pumping energy into it so it could heal enough to move. In a last ditch effort, Beelzemon leveled his gun on the steadily advancing dragon and used sheer force of will to keep his injured arm steady._

_"DOUBLE IMPACT!" he fired at the glowing hazard symbol on Megidramon's chest. _

_The dragon roared in pain and crashed to the ground. Defeated in a single blow._

_"Megidramon!" Takato shouted, a little of his real personality coming to the surface. _

_Beelzemon smirked and jumped onto the downed dragon's chest, gun trained on the hazard symbol once again. _

_"So, that's your weakness, eh? Well, it's been real, pineapplehead." Beelzemon then noticed something. Something horrifying. There was absolutely no sign that his attack had did anything; not even so much as a dent in the creature's armor. "Aw shi-!" _

_He never finished his expletive, as the sharp spear on Megidramon's tail sprouted from his chest in a shower of crimson. _

_"How does it feel to be skewered? Now you know how Leomon felt, you bastard." Takato scowled, his eyes blazing with fury. "Megidramon, execute the murderer." _

_"Megiddo Flame!" the giant dragon launched his most powerful attack, incinerating the demon lord almost instantly. _

_"Stop!" Takato yelled as Megidramon was about to load the floating data. Megidramon grudgingly complied, but then Takato thought better of it. 'If I have Megidramon load the data, we may be able to separate Leomon's data and bring him back!' "to hell with it, load it." he said, the dragon immediately did as told._

_Takato was suddenly struck with a searing pain in his head. He let out an almost inhuman shriek as he fell to his knees, taking no note of the huge shadow falling over him as Megidramon rushed to his side. The others tried to help, but a deep growl from the huge dragon kept them at bay. _

_Seconds later, Megidramon was struck with the same pain. He wailed as he fell back, clawing at his breastplate and the rapidly pulsing symbol adorning it. As the pulses increased in frequency, his data began to float away as he was slowly deleted. His breathing became ragged as he stopped struggling and laid completely still, his eyes wide, panicked and unfocused. _

_In his final seconds, one of the dragon's eyes darted to his tamer. His mouth opened, as if to say something, but all that came out was a soft wheeze. His final breath as the last bits of his data dispersed into the air._

_"Guilmon...I'm so sorry..." Takato wept, finally returning to his old self. The pain in his head became a distant sensation, completely overwhelmed by the pain in his heart. _

_"How could you?" were the last words he heard as he lost consciousness. He never saw his D-Arc's screen turn to static, or the device itself crack like a glass sculpture before disintegrating._

With a scream, the thirteen year old boy awoke from his nightmare, panting and sweating like he had just run a marathon.

"Takato?" the worried voice of Mie Matsuki, his mother, came from the other side of the door.

"I'm fine, Mom...Really, I am." Takato assured her.

"Oh...Well, alright." even though she didn't believe her son, Mie decided not to question him. She knew that if he didn't want to take about it, he wouldn't.

Swinging his legs over the edge of his bed, Takato sighed and held his head in his hands.

"That damned dream again...That makes three times this week alone." he muttered to himself.

"Takato?" a soft, high-pitched voice floated into Takato's ears from as the door to the balcony slid open.

"Hey, Lillymon." Takato gave a small wave to the Ultimate digimon.

The plant woman flew over to the boy before gently letting herself fall onto the bed beside him.

"What's wrong?" the digimon asked.

Now, most people would freak at the sight of an actual digimon, but not Takato. They were too common for him to get worked up about nowadays, especially one that he had been seeing everyday for the past few months. Other than Lillymon, Takato had seen a redhead with a Renamon, a blue-haired kid with a Terriermon, an Impmon causing trouble in the park, and a small digimon that called himself Calumon.

Instead of freaking out, Takato developed a borderline obsession with digimon. He envied the blue-haired kid, Henry, and the redhead, who's name he had yet to get. But, from the dreams he'd been having, her name was Rika, though her last name was a mystery to him. He'd dubbed them Digimon Tamers, but he didn't know where he got the inspiration to do so.

"It was the dream again, wasn't it?" Lillymon said, scooting closer to the teen.

Takato nodded. He'd been having the same dream for a while now. All of his friends were in it, and they all had digimon of their own, except Kenta. Jeri's partner, a Leomon, was deleted by a digimon Takato knew as Beelzemon, Impmon's Mega form. Takato would then see himself go into a vengeful rage, forcing his digimon partner, which he recognized as the digimon her draw a while back, called Guilmon, to digivolve to his Mega form. But, in the same way it did in the first season of the Digimon show, things went terribly wrong. Though Takato would have begged for SkullGreymon over the monster that was created.

Megidramon. That name sounded so familiar to Takato, but he knew he'd never heard it before. As far as he knew, Guilmon was a digimon that he had created, and Megidramon was his Mega form, which meant that he had created the mindless dragon as well. He couldn't possibly have heard it before if the digimon didn't even exist!

'Maybe I'm thinking of Megadramon, or Magnadramon. Their names sound similar, and Megadramon even looks a bit like Megidramon. Yeah, that has to be it.'

Lillymon let out a sigh and hugged Takato. "You know, this may sound corny and outlandish, but the dream could be a premonition. A vision of a possible future. Maybe even a vision of your destiny."

Takato snorted. "Yeah, that makes sense. If I become friends with both Henry and a girl named "Rika", my other friends get digimon partners, we go to the Digital World, meet someone named Ryo who has a Cyberdramon, and fight a Beelzemon, then I'll pick up a Jamaican accent and make myself a Psychic Hotline. Besides, if you saw what I saw...You'd be doing everything you could to alter that 'future'."

"You never go into details about the dream. What could possibly be so bad about it?"

Takato remained silent, then looked into the taller digimon's eyes. "...Tell me, do you know of a digimon called 'Megidramon'?"

Lillymon stiffened and a look of unbridled fear crossed her features. "M-Me-Megidramon? Y-You're dreams are a-about Me-Megidramon?" she shuddered, looking like she was going to take off at any second.

Takato cocked his head to the side. "I take that as a yes. You're reaction is nearly identical to everyone else's in my dreams. I guess he really is as bad as I thought he was." he mumbled the last part.

Lillymon shook off her fear and gulped before putting on a strained smile. "D-Don't worry about it, Takato...I'm sure everything will be just fine, maybe the dreams mean nothing."

Takato saw right through her. "Then why do I keep having them? Why do they never change? And why are you so scared?" he got picked up his drawing pad from his desk. "And why do I have these?"

Lillymon took the book and flipped through it. Inside were various drawings, but a few of them were colored, and they caught her eyes. They were highly detailed drawings of Takato's ideal digimon partner, named Guilmon, his stats, and his entire evolutionary line.

"Why am I showing you these? Because...I only drew Guilmon, Growlmon, and WarGrowlmon...and I never colored any of them." he took the pad and flipped it to the last page, where the true masterpiece of the book was. It was an incredibly detailed and realistic drawing of Megidramon, without the stats, with Takato standing before him with his arms crossed. "I wish I could say I drew it...But, at the same time, I wish I could say I'd never seen it before."

Lillymon's mask of fear returned as she looked at the picture. She yelped when Megidramon's eyes seemed to shine and one turned towards her.

Takato pulled the pad back and looked at it, just in time to catch the fading glow and put the book down himself.

"Still think the dreams mean nothing?" Takato said, still looking at the drawing pad suspiciously.

Lillymon was silent for a while, then finally spoke, "You...You should get ready for school, Takato."

Takato chuckled. "Changing the subject, are we?"

Lillymon crossed her arms over his breasts. "It's six-thirty, and it's Friday. Unless you want detention on the last schoolday of the week, I suggest you get ready."

Takato rolled his eyes and smiled. "Yes, Mother." he dodged the pillow that was thrown at him, laughing before he stepped into the bathroom for his morning shower. He poked his head out before closing the door and glared at Lillymon. "And NO PEEKING!" he then slammed the door and locked it.

Lillymon snapped her fingers and snarled in annoyance. "Drat!" she hissed, irritated that her plan was foiled before it even began.

(Digital World)

Two figures stood by a viewing window to the Human World, watching their target go about his normal day, as they had for the past week. They were figuring out his routine so they would be able to carry out their mission more easily.

One of the figures rose an eyebrow as the boy entered his shower. "Oh? So well built for one so young...I like him...I like him a LOT!" this figure was obviously female, and had absolutely no qualms about oogling the boy while he thought he was in a private setting.

The other figure simply turned away with a growl. "Get a hold of yourself, woman! The Boss gave us a mission, the first one in years, and I'm not going to let you fuck it up because you can't control your desires!"

The female turned to her companion. "Oh, shut up, you! You're the last one who should talk about self-control, Mr. I-Want-To-Level-Entire-Cities-Because-It's-Fun!"

The other, much, much larger figure snorted. "That was a time when I was something I wasn't proud of. I'm a new mon, now!" it leveled a green-eyed glare at the smaller being. "But this new 'mon is still just as powerful as the old one. So, unless you want to find out how my..._transformation_ took place, the hard way, I suggest you stop lusting over the child and get on with the mission! Any feelings you may develop for him will only make our job harder, which means it will become easier to mess it up." its green eyes glowed menacingly. "And I do NOT like to mess up. Have I made myself clear?"

The other digimon stared into the glowing emerald orbs with its own blazing red ones. "I don't know who decided you could order me around, or when this decision was made behind my back. But I'm going to tell you, right now, to back the hell off." the female narrowed her eyes.

"I decided I could order you around. When did I decide? When I became so much more powerful than you."

"You can digivolve to Mega, or so you say. But I've never once seen you do it."

"You've never seen me in a situation in which I had to digivolve. I, however, have seen, and saved, you in multiple situations where you could have used the power I have. And we've only known each other for two weeks! I think that speaks for itself, and it says: I'm stronger than you!"

"Back. Off. Unless you want to find out what I can really do."

"Hmmm, that seems familiar, where have I heard that before...Oh yes, a Myotismon decided to get all high and mighty with me and said something similar to that...right before I crushed him like the parasite he was."

The female snorted. "You think you're the only one who's annihilated a few Myotismon in their time? Please, I've deleted more of those blood-suckers than you've even seen."

They would have continued arguing had a deep, rumbling voice, with a sinister rasping undertone, bombarded there ears.

"ENOUGH!" both digimon flinched and cowered in fear.

"We're sorry, Boss!" the female squeaked.

The larger digimon stayed silent.

"Would one of you be so kind as to tell me why you're both bickering like little In-Trainings?"

"W-Well, you s-see, I-I-!" the female was cutoff by an enraged roar from the "Boss".

"I DON'T CARE WHY YOU'RE ARGUING! JUST GET YOUR SORRY ASSES TO THE HUMAN WORLD AND CARRY OUT YOUR MISSION!"

"B-But Boss, w-we h-h-have to wait f-for the portal t-to open up be-before we can l-l-leave." the larger male digimon stuttered.

"I see...Well, the portal isn't here, now is it?" the two digimon shook their heads in reply. "Then why, exactly, are you STILL HERE? GET TO THE FUCKING PORTAL BEFORE I DELETE YOU MYSELF!"

"Yes sir!" both digimon disappeared into thin air, booking in towards the portal site.

The Boss grumbling in irritation. "Why can't any of my stronger subordinates get along? Always with the bickering and the pranks...Fucking headaches, I miss human painkillers."

(Human World)

Takato stepped out of the shower and looked around, halfway expecting Lillymon to be hovering near the ceiling, watching him. He felt someone's eyes on him, but there was no one in the room with him.

He felt anxious and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Two things that only happened when he was being watched.

"I don't like this...I don't like it at all." he mumbled as he wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom. After a preliminary scan for any peeping digimon, of course.

(Thirty Minutes Later)

We find Takato walking from his home, backpack hanging from his shoulder, towards the playground he met Kazu and Kenta in for their morning card matches. Decked out in his normal outfit; a black shirt with red sleeves and a biohazard symbol on the front, faded black cargo jeans, and red-on-black sneakers, Takato couldn't help but feel a bit naked without his trademark black snowboarding goggles with the red lenses. He'd lost them around his home somewhere and hadn't been able to find them for the past three days.(1)

While walking, he was also multitasking like a bastard. Checking his deck to see if he had all of the cards that went with it; thinking of strategies he could use against Kazu, since Kenta was a pushover; and trying to interpret his dreams and figure out just what the hell was going on with his drawings!

Not only were things that he didn't draw appearing in his drawing pad, but the things that he did draw were colored before he even decided on a final color scheme! Admittedly, he was going to go for the black-on-red design, but still.

"Why do I get the feeling that today's not going to be normal...at all?" he looked over his shoulder, like he was expecting something to come out of the blue and blindside him.

He finally saw the playground and smirked, it was time for him to try out something new with the cards he got the previous day.

"Hah! My HiAndromon destroys your MetalGreymon, and I win! Again!" Kazu cheered while his bespectacled friend hung his head in defeat.

"I don't know how you manage to do it, but you always get at least two of your Megas out! Last time it was MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon, this time it was HiAndromon and MetalGarurumon. You and your robots, sheesh!"

"Hey! The term is 'Cyborg', not robot!"

"Same difference." Kenta grumbled, but Kazu caught it.

"Do I have to school you on the differences between cyborgs and robots? Again?" Kazu pulled his backpack to his side.

"You still carry that chart?" came a surprised voice from the top of the swiss cheese dome-thing.

"Of course, Chumley! You never know when some ignorant person" he looked pointedly at Kenta, "needs to learn something."

Takato smirked, then, in an impressive display of acrobatics, flipped himself into the hideout and landing in a crouch next to Kenta.

"Well, I think it's time for you to learn something." he pulled out his deck. "Even machines can be infected with a virus."

(Fifteen Minutes Later)

"And, now that they're powered up, my SkullGreymon and LadyDevimon destroy your MetalSeadramon and your MetalMamemon, and I win the game. Without the use of any Mega-level digimon, I might add." Takato grinned as Kazu stared on in shock.

"B-But...How?"

Kenta laughed. "Not only were you using Data-type digimon against Virus-types, you failed to stop him from powering up his SkullGreymon and LadyDevimon. You focused on keeping them from Digivolving, not from getting stronger. It's your fault you lost, and I love it! Can you taste the irony? He defeated you when you used the same tactic I used against you!" he fell over laughing and clutching his sides.

Kazu crossed his arms and turned away with a huff. "That ain't funny!"

"Oh? You thought it was hilarious when it happened to me!" Kenta kept laughing.

Takato shook his head and chuckled. "Come on, if we don't move it we'll be late."

Kazu waved him off. "Calm down, Takato, we've got forty-five minutes before school starts."

"Isn't that what you say almost everyday?" Takato asked, and received a nod. "And aren't we late for class almost everyday?" another nod. "Am I the only one who sees the pattern here?"

Kenta and Kazu shared a look, then both got up and bolted out of the hideout. "Move it, Chumley, or we're gonna be late again!"

Takato's right eye twitched. "Hey, that's my line!" he ran out after them, easily catching up to them, then going into "Drill Sergeant" mode and yelling at them to make them run faster.

(Thirty Minutes Later)

The class governed by Ms. Asaji was completely calm. Kids talking quietly amongst themselves, reading, doing some last minute homework, or catching up on some sleep. The teacher herself was simply reading a book, minding her own business.

Ms. Asaji glanced at the clock and sighed. Fifteen minutes until the calm was shattered by the "Dynamic Trio", as most people called them. Hirokazu "Kazu" Shioda, Kenta Kitagawa, and Takato Matsuki, the school's primary troublemakers.

Some people didn't think the name for their group was fair to Takato, however, since he was more of a moderator, keeping Kazu and, by extension, Kenta in line. The group dynamic was as follows: Kazu comes up with some kind of hair-brained scheme/prank, he convinces Kenta to join him, and Takato stands on the sidelines, watching with amusement until it was time to step in before things got out of hand. But, when he stepped in, it often made the situation worse, ending with Takato taking most of the blame, despite Kazu and Kenta's pleas that it was their fault.

But Takato appeared to be a good sport about it, and still hung out with them. This led to Takato having a reputation for being too kindhearted for his own good.

The door suddenly flew open as Takato, Kazu, and Kenta can barreling into the room.

"Yes! We're early for once in our lives!" Kazu cheered.

"Speak for yourself, man. I once got to school an hour early." Takato grumbled, picking himself up off the floor.

"Not setting your alarm clock correctly is only a valid excuse for being late, not early, Chumley."

Ms. Asaji cleared her throat loudly, drawing the attention of the three boys. "Being in class ten minutes early isn't anything to brag about...for most people. For you three, it's almost cause for a medal."

Takato gave the teacher a warm smile. "Aw, come on, Ms. Asaji, let us have this one small moment. Please?" this was his version of Puppy Dog Eyes, taught to him by his stepdad. Don't be cute, be handsome!

The woman almost lost her grip on her book when she saw the teen smile. 'Oh my God, no teenager should know how to do that! With a smile like that, I feel sorry for him when he gets to high school. He's gonna be mobbed by girls.' she blushed. "Yes, well...Alright, just take your seats and don't disrupt the class any further."

The boys walked to their seats at the back of the class, grinning all the way.

"Way to go, Chumley! She didn't even yell at use for running in the halls, disrupting the class, and destruction of school property!" Kazu whispered, looking back at the door, which would probably never close properly again.

Takato sat down and leaned back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head and allowing a rare arrogant smirk to grace his features.

"What can I say? I'm just that good." he then deadpanned and simply slouched in his seat. "That pose just didn't suit me at all."

Kazu and Kenta shook their heads. "No, it really didn't."

Takato's vision was suddenly blocked by a dog-themed sock puppet.

"Hello, Takato! Arf!" its slightly irritating, high-pitched voice assaulted Takato's ears.

"Hey, Jeri. You're getting better at that!" Takato complimented his friend with a smile.

The brown-haired girl smiled happily. "Really? Thanks, I've been practicing a lot!"

The boys sweatdropped as they watched her walk away, positively giddy about the compliment.

"I swear, she's about as sane as a scrambled egg." Kazu said, leaning back in his chair.

"Nah, she just has a few...issues, is all." Takato took his notebook and pencils out of his backpack, ready to begin the schoolday.

(End Of The Schoolday)

Takato found himself running down the hallways, Kazu and Kenta trailing behind him, towards the school exit. As soon as the bell had rung, everyone cleared the way as the "Matsuki Typhoon" made its way through the school, just like it did every Friday.

Outside of the school, a lone delivery man was scratching his head. "_This_ is where I'm supposed to deliver the package to?" he stared at the school, then shrugged. If it was just a prank by some kid, then he couldn't be blamed for it, so he had nothing to lose. 'Besides, it'll make a good story to tell the guys.' he looked at the package. 'I'll bet this thing is full of porn, or something.' he chuckled and walked up to the double-doors.

Just as he was about press the buzzer next to the door, which would alert someone in the main office to his presence, said door swung open and the delivery man was bulldozed by one figure, then trampled by the two following it.

"What...the hell?" the man sat up, disoriented and hurting. His eyes widened when he felt the ground shake beneath him. He turned and paled when he saw a human wave of school children charging towards him, cheering and screaming about the weekend. "Holy shi-!" he curled into the fetal position as the first feet hit him, making himself as small a target as possible.

Takato, Kazu, and Kenta instantly bolted towards their playground hideout as soon as they cleared the school's property.

Upon arrival, they immediately began a three-way game. Normally this would have been confusing for anyone, but, after nearly six months of practice, they had it all figured out.

The turns were decided by the roll of a die, and the game pretty much continued like a normal one. The only difference was that each player had a choice of who he was going to target.

(Twenty Minutes Later)

In what was probably the longest battle they'd ever been in, even in the tournaments they'd participated in, a winner was finally decided.

"Yes! SkullGreymon digivolves to BlackWarGreymon, and LadyDevimon digivolves to Lilithmon!" Takato turned to Kazu. "You get a Terra Destroyer." he turned to Kenta. "You get a Nazar Nail." he raised his arms in victory. "And I get to gloat!"

Kazu threw down his cards angrily while Kenta, once again, hung his head in shame. Takato had to be some kind of monster. The way he played was just inhuman! Near the end they had even tried to double-team him, yet they could neither stop him from bringing out his Megas, or powering up his Ultimates. He outsmarted them at every turn. When they attacked him, he would activate a card that made them attack each other. When they tried to keep his digimon from reaching higher levels, or even de-volving them, he would nullify their effects. Nothing worked!

In the end, all they could do was accept defeat and try again tomorrow.

"I swear, you've got a computer in your head." Kazu muttered. Throughout the entire battle, not once did Takato hesitate or stop to think of what he was going to do. It was like he already knew what they had planned, and had thought up a counter during their turns. He was calm and collected all the while, his face not betraying his thoughts. Just a seemingly permanent smirk that would widen only when he was about to spring a trap.

"I wish, then I wouldn't suck at math so much." Takato laughed.

"You know what I wanna see? You versus the Digimon Queen, Rika Nonaka. Now that would be a battle!" Kenta sat back and his eyes glazed over, showing that his imagination had taken his mind elsewhere.

Takato's eyes widened as he heard the name. 'Nonaka...so that's her last name.' he thought, then growled at a certain memory. "I would have faced her in the semi-finals if that guy hadn't stolen my Apocalymon and Gulfmon cards before the battle! Bastard even had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to trade after he beat me with them!"

Kazu scratched his chin. "Oh yeah, that was the guy you beat up after he was annihilated by the Digimon Queen!"

Takato scoffed. "I didn't beat him up, I only hit him one time. He went down, I grabbed his deck, took my cards back, and left." Takato wasn't faulted for his violent "outburst", for a security camera mounted in the practice area, where players went through last minute strategies, had revealed that Takato wasn't the only one the boy had stolen from.

Kazu laughed, then, after gathering his cards, checked his watch and did a double-take. "Holy crap! I forgot I've gotta be home in five minutes!" he got up and ran out of the hideout while yelling, "Sorry, guys, gotta go, see ya' tomorrow!"

His shouting awoke Kenta from his daydreaming and he looked around, then at Takato. An awkward silence followed. Without Kazu, there was no inspiration to do anything.

Finally, Takato sighed. "Just go home, Kenta, I'm sure we'll think of something to do over the weekend." he stood up, brushing the dirt from his pants.

Kenta smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure Kazu will think of something to stir up some trouble. Later, man." then he walked off, whistling a tune to himself.

Takato smiled at the thought of what was going to happen tomorrow, almost fearing it. Weekends were rarely a good thing when they were spent with Kazu.

As he gathered his cards he noticed something odd, something bright blue in color.

"What the hell is this thing?" Takato pulled out the blue card and stared at it oddly. It was the same shape and size as a normal card, but it was solid blue, and the only artwork on it was the yellow, pixilated "D" with a Digital Pet-type dinosaur, of the same color, going through it.

Then, for a reason he couldn't fathom, Takato swiped the strange card through his card reader. Sparks flew from the small machine and Takato dropped it. Little bolts of electricity arced around the device before it was encased in a ball of light. The glow was so intense that Takato had to look away from it and shield his eyes, but he still saw little green and purple spots wherever he looked.

"Dammit, just my luck. I finally get a new card reader after the first one ended up in the washer, and I had to go be an idiot and mess it up!" Takato growled to himself as the glow died down.

When it was safe, he looked to check out the damage, but, instead, found a device laying on the ground that certainly wasn't his card reader.

"...The hell?" he said to himself as he picked the strange machine up. It looked like one of those Digital Pet things he'd seen some of the girls with at his school, but much more advanced. The screen was the same, maybe a bit larger, and surrounded by a red ring. Turning it over, it looked like it could still perform the function of a card reader, judging from the narrow slit in the side.

"Oh well, I'll figure it out later." he walked out of the hideout and stretched, feeling his spine pop in several places. "Right now, I've got Team Fortress on the brain!" with that, he clipped the device to a belt loop on his jeans and took off towards his home.

(Hours Upon Hours Of Gaming Later)

Takato walked into his room with the grace of a decaying zombie, his eyes bloodshot from not blinking for several minutes at a time, and his voice all but gone from screaming at people over his headset.

'Not to self: never do the Spy Check thing again...Or, at least, not for as long.' he didn't even bother to take off his clothes, he just sat the device, which he now called a D-Arc, though he didn't know why, next to his sketchpad on his nightstand, then collapsed onto his bed, snoring before his head even hit the pillow.

He never felt Lillymon give him a kiss on the cheek before walking out to the balcony and taking flight after closing the door. He never noticed the wind coming in from the slightly open window to the right of the balcony door blowing the pages of his drawing pad away, flipping it to the drawings of Guilmon. He never noticed the D-Arc's screen glowing, and the pages being ripped from the notebook and scanned through the device. He never saw the D-Arc's screen project a large modified radiation hazard symbol on his ceiling as the picture of Megidramon was scanned.

And, even though he felt an odd tingling sensation, he was in too deep a sleep to notice an identical hazard symbol branding itself onto the skin of his right bicep, becoming a tattoo.

(Digital World)

The two digimon from before appeared on a cliff overlooking a dense forest.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" the larger digimon asked.

"Hey, I followed the directions the Boss gave us to the letter. If this isn't it, we probably got lost when you decided we were moving too slowly and bounded off in the general direction of where I said to go. You know you have a horrible sense of direction!" the much smaller female growled from her position on the shoulder of her companion.

Before another argument could start, both digimon were distracted by portal opening up. It looked almost like the viewing window, but they couldn't see anything beyond the swirling mass of colors that made them feel like they had eaten some bad mushrooms.

"It's time..." the larger figure boomed, then turned his head slightly towards the one on his shoulder. "You first."

The female scoffed, then looked at the portal. "...Tell me, do you know of the human game called 'Rock-paper-scissors'?"

XXXX

Not much comedy in this chapter, and no action at all, so you'll have to forgive me for that. But, like I said, I'm going to try and follow the episodes of the season, and nothing happened in the first episode, other than Renamon fighting that Lynxmon, which will be in the next chapter.

(1): Takato will seem to have a bit of an obsession with the black and red color scheme, but it's mainly a subconscious thing, the reasons for which will be explained later.

Well, other than that, there's not much to say about the first chapter of this story. So...

Jason Out!


	2. The Viral Tamer

Hey everybody! I'm back with the second chapter of the new and improved Tamer of the Hazard!

There's a serious lack of action in this chapter, but the first two are used mainly for character developement.

And, while this story will be following the Digimon Tamers episodes, event will happen a bit differently, and some may not happen at all. The main reason for this is Takato. His personality is drastically different from the pussy in the series(I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice that Takato is the ONLY "leader" of the "Hero Team" to never punch anyone). This Takato will handle many things in a completely different manner than the canon character. His martial arts training will often come into play, whether he's being physical, or just keeping himself calm in the face of danger. He will also be able to joke and trashtalk with the best of them, coming up with one-liners that would leave even Rika dumbfounded and fumbling for a comeback.

Anyway, on with the story!

XXXX

(Human World)

Takato opened his eyes and found himself in a very odd position...floating about fifty feet above the ground with his arms spread out like he was being crucified. He could feel that he was holding his D-Arc, but didn't know exactly how or why. Hadn't he put it on his nightstand before he went to sleep?

'Sleep, that's it! This is all a dream...just a freaky dream. Now, to pinch myself and wake up...And I can't move my arms, just peachy." he grumbled when he found his arms refusing to budge from their positions. He then had another thought. "Why is it so damned foggy down there?" he cocked his head to the side, seeing as how it was the only bodypart he could move at the time.

As if he had said the magic words, the fog seemed to clear before his eyes, revealing a large, flaming, cat-like beast in the center of it all.

"Huh, a Lynxmon. Nothing special." Takato tried to shrug, then growled when he realized he couldn't even do that! "Fuck!"

He noticed something moving down below, and, apparently, so did the Lynxmon, as it turned its attention towards the newcomer.

"Hmph, just an Armor digimon, and a weak one, at that." the voice of a girl cut through the fog like a knife made of ice.

A red-haired girl, wearing a tan trenchcoat and purple sunglasses, stepped through the fog and gazed coolly at the digimon before her.

Takato saw her and only two thoughts ran through his mind. 'This won't take long.' and 'Why do I have a sudden craving for pineapples?'

The Lynxmon gazed at the human curiously. Weren't humans supposed to be highly skittish creatures? Easily frightened by anything they didn't understand, or something more powerful than they were? Well, he was stronger than any human could ever hope to be, yet this human, this _child_, was standing up to him, looking him right in the eyes without so much as blinking! Hell, she even looked a bit bored!

The digimon let the comment about his level slide. She knew nothing of his power, but he was more than happy to educate her.

Rika Nonaka, as Takato now knew her, scoffed before pulling off her sunglasses and walking off to the side. As another figure appeared behind her, she called over her shoulder, "Renamon, walk all over him."

Takato knew exactly what was about to happen. He'd seen Rika and Renamon battle Champion and Armor-level digimon before, and Renamon always won, sometimes even without the help of modify cards. Somehow, when Rika and Renamon battled other digimon, Takato always managed to be the only one in the area. Sometimes he thought that the digimon were actually looking for him, but were found by the Tamer and her partner before they found him.

Really, there could only be so many simple coincidences!

But, if it was one thing he learned from those two, other than the fact that digimon cards could be swiped through their Digivices to provide their partners with the same effects as in the card game, it was that a Rookie should never be underestimated. Renamon may have been low in level, but she was strong as hell. Something she was about to prove, again, tonight.

Takato didn't bother to pay attention to the battle, already knowing the Lynxmon would lose, instead, he opted to watch Rika. He saw her looking quite bored with the fight, almost as much as he was. She looked around for something to do, but found nothing. She leaned against a tree, tapped her foot impatiently, then pulled out her Digivice and pointed it in Lynxmon's general direction. A holographic display popped up above the device's screen and she mumbled out the information to herself.

It was then that Takato realized that her Digivice was the same as his! A different color, blue where his was red, but it was the same device! They both had D-Arcs, which had to mean Takato was also a Tamer!

If he had been able to move, Takato would have jumped for joy, but he couldn't, so he settled for a face-splitting grin. Then he noticed that, down below, Renamon was nowhere to be found, Rika was smirking and looking up towards him, and the Lynxmon was standing on the ground looking utterly confused.

Takato looked over and saw the reason for the previously mentioned situations: Renamon had jumped up behind and above the Lynxmon, getting some SERIOUS hangtime, and readying her Diamond Storm attack. For a second, Takato swore the fox looked at him and they made eye-contact, but it was too fast for him to register, and he just shrugged it off. He guessed that he was like a ghost here, and no one could see him.

"Diamond Storm!" Renamon spread her arms out and the energy ball in front of her exploded into hundreds, maybe even thousands of small, razor-sharp shards of energy, which rained down on the Lynxmon, destroying it.

Takato gave a yawn as Renamon descended from her jump. "Well, that went on for about...five hours too long." he deadpanned. He suddenly found himself able to move again, and got into a more comfortable position; sitting on air with his legs crossed and his head resting on the knuckles of his right hand.

Down below, the fog was clearing, meaning that anyone attracted by the fog would be able to see Rika and Renamon, which meant they had to leave. Renamon seemed to whisper something into Rika's ear, and they both turned to look directly at Takato, or at least his direction.

Takato rose an eyebrow, wondering if they could really see him. 'Well, only one way to find out.' he smirked, then shouted, "What the hell are you two lookin' at?" he saw both of their eyes widen and they took a step back. "...Whoa, it worked." though he figured they could only hear him, since they seemed to be looking in other directions, not at him.

The two females left after Rika said something to her partner, and darkness overtook Takato.

The teen opened his eyes again, awakening to the sound of persistent and annoying beeping. But not the punishing beat of his alarm clock, this was more high-pitched, almost like a cellphone ringtone.

"Oh, what now?" Takato groaned as he felt around on his nightstand, where he guessed the sound was coming from.

His hand landed on something small, oddly shaped, and slightly warm. He picked it up and turned his head to look at it, bolting upright in his bed when he saw he was holding his D-Arc. The screen was glowing, the thing was beeping like crazy, and it was generating heat. For a second, Takato feared the thing would blow up in his hand, but his fears were squashed when he accidently pressed one of the buttons on the device, causing a holographic display of a red arrow to pop up.

"Whoa." was all the boy said.

Then, without any warning, Takato felt the irresistible urge to leave his home and follow the arrow. Before he even fully registered what he was going, he had pulled on his sneakers, opened the sliding glass door, and leapt off of the balcony to the ground below. Landing in a crouch, he didn't even bother to contemplate what he was doing, he just took off in the direction the arrow indicated.

(Construction Yard)

"Pyro Sphere!" a fireball the size of a watermelon flew through the air and impacted against a wall, frying some rats and making a rather large crater in the concrete.

"Dammit! What's wrong with you? I told you NOT to attack the rodents!" an angry feminine voice screamed in frustration.

"Rodents? I don't see any humans around here." a rumbling male voice boomed.

"Where the hell were you? I've been waiting here for almost ten minutes!" the female yelled.

"Meh, I got lost on the road of life." the male said casually, earning him a growl from his companion.

"What life? You're a damned zombie!" the female screeched.

This was what Takato heard as he quietly stalked towards the voices. He could see trace amounts of the strange fog that had covered the battlefield in his dream, and assumed it was what was left of the Digital Field. The voices were coming from digimon, obviously, and one of them sounded familiar.

"What did it say? 'Pyro Sphere'? I know I've heard that before...Holy shit." he increased his pace as a feeling of immense joy gripped him.

The childish, nasally voice sounded once again. "...You're big."

The booming voice replied, "Yes, I get that a lot."

"...You have a fish on your back."

There was a growl, accompanied by a feminine giggle. "It's. A. Missile."

Takato froze in his tracks. 'A big digimon with a fish-like missile on its back...Oh no.' there was only one digimon that fit that description, and it was notorious for its highly destructive nature and overwhelming berserker method of attacking.

"Hey, you, human, are you gonna stand behind that wall all night, or are you gonna come out to where we can see you?" the female voice said...from right above Takato.

He looked up and was met with the red eyes of a digimon he knew all too well.

"LadyDevimon." he breathed out, though he noticed that her clawed left arm was missing, replaced with a normal one in a long, black glove. And the little gremlin thing on her shoulder was also gone.

The demon woman floating above him actually smiled...LADY-freakin'-DEVIMON SMILED!

"Yep, that's me!" she floated down to the ground and stood before Takato, who marveled not only at her impressive height and imposing figure, but her dark, sensual beauty.

"I...Um...What...Ahhh...Hi." was all Takato could say as he struggled to maintain eye-contact and not let his eyes drift lower. This was a digimon that he, of all people, knew NEVER to piss off.

LadyDevimon giggled, which almost caused Takato to lose it and book right then and there. Evil digimon were NOT supposed to giggle!

"You're so much cuter in person, you know that?" the Ultimate leaned down to Takato's level, and used her left hand to tilt Takato's head up. She leaned in further, her eyes darkening with an emotion Takato wasn't quite familiar with.

Then, just as their lips were about to meet, the ground shook and a terrifying growl sounded from high above them.

LadyDevimon snarled and glared up at the beast, pure rage burning in her eyes. "DAMN YOU TO HELL, YOU BONEY BASTARD!" she shrieked, but was ignored by both the giant digimon and Takato, who were staring at each other.

"...SkullGreymon..." Takato gasped in awe. He knew the Ultimate was big, but he never knew just how big. Of course, since he had never seen a real one, he had no way of knowing that this SkullGreymon was larger than normal because of its uniqueness, as the species went, and its power.

"...Tamer..." a low, growling voice came from behind LadyDevimon.

Both the digimon and the human present turned their attention to the red and black Rookie digimon currently stalking towards Takato, its eyes having gone "Viral".

"Guilmon?" Takato rose an eyebrow, then turned to LadyDevimon. "Viral Instincts?"

Both digimon, who were Virus-types, of course, nodded.

"Yep, but don't worry, he couldn't harm you, even if he wanted to." the demon woman pointed at the device in Takato's hand. "You're his Tamer. And..." she grabbed something that was hanging out between the stitches in her outfit just above her breasts, causing Takato to blush madly, and pulled out a black and grey D-Arc. "You're our Tamer, as well." she handed the boy the second device.

Takato stared at it in awe, then back at LadyDevimon, who was having trouble controlling herself.

'He's just so damned cute with that blush!' the demon woman unconsciously licked her lips.

'It's still warm...' Takato thought as he held the D-Arc. Then he thought of something. "Wait a minute, 'our' Tamer?" something fell on his head, which he caught when it bounced off. It was another D-Arc, this one white with black trim.

"That is correct, you are now the Tamer of the youngling, the woman, and myself." SkullGreymon said, mentally chuckling at the expression on his new Tamer's face; an amusing mix of pain, awe, happiness, anger, and embarrassment.

LadyDevimon glared at the skeletal giant again. "Would it kill you to call me 'LadyDevimon', at the very least?"

The giant shrugged. "I don't know, but I've never been a real risk-taker."

Takato's brow furrowed as he spoke, "But...aren't you already dead?"

Both Ultimate digimon seemed to think about the question for a second, then SkullGreymon replied, "I think that's only a figure of speech. You see, for me to be dead, I had to have, at one time, been alive. Have you ever seen a digimon that even remotely resembles these bones?"

Takato didn't have a reply to that. Despite being of the Greymon evolutionary line, he looked nothing like any other member of the line, or any other digimon period. For one, he was bigger than all of them, besides MetalGreymon, which was the same size. He had a single horn on top of his head, as opposed to the traditional tri-horned Greymon. The bone-leg things on his back, resembling spider legs, were a feature no other digimon, let alone a Greymon, possessed. And he had massive arms with five-fingered hands. Every member of the Greymon line, other than WarGreymon/BlackWarGreymon, had relatively short arms ending with three-fingered hands, each tipped with wicked claws. Even MetalGreymon's Trident Arm only had three claws.

In short, SkullGreymon was unique in almost every sense of the word, in terms of appearance.

Takato's eyes widened as he thought of something. "Oh crap, this is gonna be a problem." he said suddenly.

"Hm? What's that?" LadyDevimon asked.

"My parents. They already know about Lillymon, and she stays at our house all the time, but she's not nearly as...scary as you all. Guilmon, she may be able to deal with. You two, however...Well, one: you're both too big, especially you." he pointed at SkullGreymon, who nodded in understanding. "And you, LadyDevimon, would scare the crap out of my mom."

The "evil" digimon waved a hand. "Oh, don't worry about that, I can de-volve to my Champion form, BlackGatomon."

Takato nodded. "Okay." he turned to the skeletal dragon. "How about you?"

SkullGreymon shrugged. "I'm too powerful to de-volve to Rookie, and my Champion form, BlackGreymon, would still too big for your house." he stayed silent for a bit, then, "...Oops..." he mumbled.

Takato looked at him suspiciously. "Wait a minute, how do you know how big my house is?" SkullGreymon wasn't talking, and Guilmon was off torching more rats, so the only one left was LadyDevimon, whose mind seemed to be elsewhere at the time. "Hey...Hey! Wake up, LadyDevimon!"

SkullGreymon knew exactly what she was thinking about and sighed. "Woman!" he roared, causing everyone to flinch. "Sorry."

LadyDevimon shook her head to clear it and looked at Takato. "Yes?"

"How does he know how big my house is?" Takato asked.

The demon woman began to get nervous. "Well...Um, you see, I...Ah, we've...been spying on you...for the past week."

Takato's eyes widened. "So...Yesterday, when I felt like I was being watched...That was you?"

LadyDevimon nodded, then adopted an evil grin. "And, I must say, I liked what I saw." she grabbed Takato and hoisted him up to her eye-level. "Now, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted by Skeletor here? Oh yes, about right here!" her lips met Takato's in a deep, though one-sided, kiss.

Takato just hung there limply, absolutely shocked that his first real kiss was from a digimon reputed to be pure evil. Yet, here she was, almost as nice as Lillymon, and, apparently, with the same infatuation the other Ultimate had with him. Though, Takato had to admit, LadyDevimon was much more...aggressive than Lillymon ever was.

Every thought in his mind was effectively shattered as he felt something long, wet, and warm slip into his mouth; LadyDevimon's tongue! She was frenching him now, and she was damn good at it!

Takato's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he moaned in pleasure. He still couldn't properly return the kiss, but LadyDevimon didn't seem to care. She liked being in control, anyway.

SkullGreymon just stood there, pondering just how long the two below him could hold their breaths. He didn't have internal organs, so he didn't need to breathe, eat, or drink, at least in his Ultimate form. But LadyDevimon was one-hundred percent organic, with working lungs.

'Maybe she's sucking the breath out of the kid?' the skeleton thought offhandedly.

After another twenty seconds, the demon woman broke the kiss and leaned back, a thin trail of saliva still connecting her lips to Takato's. She seemed to be in a bit of a daze herself as she stared off into space, still holding Takato, who looked about ready to pass out.

During the kiss, Takato had gotten some form of mobility back and had tried to return the kiss. LadyDevimon, using her exceptionally stretchy tongue, coiled it around Takato's, which was longer than a normal human one, and dragged it into her own mouth. It was in here that Takato started to lick the roof of her mouth, and she LOVED it! It was actually a weakness of hers. Anytime something rubbed the roof of her mouth, she grew incredibly relaxed and went into a sort of trance. She often did it to herself when she was extremely angry, to avoid destroying everything around her. She wasn't SkullGreymon, and she liked to keep it that way. Massive amounts of destruction just weren't her style.

As the digimon's arms relaxed, Takato was lowered to the ground, and then freed from her grasp.

SkullGreymon saw this and cocked his huge head to the side. "You licked the roof of her mouth, didn't you?" he questioned Takato.

The boy nodded, still quite disoriented.

The giant nodded to himself. "I've seen her do it herself when she's mad. Calms her down and keeps her from going all 'Mistress of Evil'."

Takato nodded in understanding, he did something like that when he was frustrated or overly anxious. He liked to pop his joints, neck, and his spine, and crack his knuckles. It irritated and disgusted most people, but it relaxed Takato, so he didn't really give a damn.

Guilmon suddenly looked up from the bulldozer he was sniffing and growled. "Digimon..."

This drew everyone's attention, even snapping LadyDevimon out of her trance.

SkullGreymon looked in the same direction as Guilmon. He didn't have a sense of smell, but he could sense auras very well, which alerted him to enemies that he couldn't see.

"Yes...A Rookie...and a human. Nothing to worry about." he looked at Takato. "Should I crush them?"

Takato shook his head instantly. "No, I think I know who it is. A girl named Rika Nonaka, and her digimon partner, a Renamon. I don't want to harm either of them, and I don't feel like answering any questions she's bound to have. Let's just leave, we'll sort all this out later."

SkullGreymon and LadyDevimon nodded while Takato walked over to Guilmon.

The demonic digimon looked up at her companion. "So, where are you going? You can't stay here without drawing a LOT of attention, and you're way too big to go to Takato's house."

SkullGreymon shrugged. "I figured as much before we ever got here. I'll go back to the Digital World and see if the Boss has anything else planned for me." he turned to Takato. "If you ever require my assistance, slash a 'SkullGreymon' card through my D-Arc, and I'll be summoned to this world to help you."

Takato nodded, then rose an eyebrow. "You know about the Digimon Card Game?" he just received blank stares from both Ultimates. "Right, stupid question. You also call these Digivices 'D-Arcs'?"

SkullGreymon nodded. "That is their proper name. Digivices come in many different models, and the models you, and others of your kind, possess are called 'D-Arcs'. It's not surprising that you knew. When they receive a D-Arc, a human instantly gains certain knowledge. Like knowing the spontaneous fog that appears when a digimon crosses over to this world is called a Digital Field, and knowing the model name of your Digivice. Curiously, this wasn't the case with the first Digivices, but I assume it was a feature programmed into later models to enable humans to be more well-informed so you could prepare yourselves for battle."

Takato nodded, appreciating SkullGreymon's intelligence. "You know, your species has a really bad reputation, but you're alright."

SkullGreymon gave a thumbs-up, since he obviously couldn't smile. "Thanks, but my species' reputation is well-deserved. I'm unique, as SkullGreymon go, and my Viral Instincts lay dormant most of the time."

LadyDevimon smirked. "But you should see him when he's pissed off. I've actually seen Mega-level digimon run away from him."

SkullGreymon chuckled. "So, you finally admit I'm the strongest."

LadyDevimon scoffed. "Hardly. That doesn't prove anything! Megas have run from me, too!"

"Only at _certain_ times. And, at those times, Woman, even _I_ would run from you, if only to get out of hearing range of your rantings."

A tick mark developed on LadyDevimon's forehead. "Just go, already! I'll take Takato back home, you just go away!"

SkullGreymon laughed, then nodded a farewell to Takato before being encased in fog, then disappearing.

"...Nice exit." Takato commented.

"Show-off." LadyDevimon huffed, then turned to Takato and Guilmon, who was no longer in his Viral state. "Ready to go?" she asked them.

Takato nodded, then began to walk out of the construction yard, Guilmon following loyally. He yelped when he was suddenly plucked from the ground and hoisted high into the air in the arms of his new partner.

"Hey!" Takato glared at the demon woman.

"What, don't like to fly?" LadyDevimon smiled mischievously.

"That's not it, I actually love things like hand-gliding. But could you give me a little warning next time? Sheesh!" he squirmed into a more comfortable position, then looked over to Guilmon, who was being held in LadyDevimon's clawed left hand. "Wait a minute, wasn't your arm normal just a minute ago?"

LadyDevimon looked at the arm in question. "Yeah, why?"

"I didn't know you could change the form of the arm...cool."

"What can I say? I'm also unique amongst my species, just like SkullGreymon. I can do things over LadyDevimon can't, like changing the form of my left arm, removing some of these chains, and making the little phantom go dormant."

"What does that thing do, anyway?"

"Honestly, I never bothered to find out. I didn't like it, so I keep it dormant."

Takato nodded. "It is an ugly little thing, ain't it?"

LadyDevimon giggled. "Sure is!"

Before they knew it, they were at Takato's home and LadyDevimon sat Takato and Guilmon on the balcony, then went through the door after them, closing it behind her.

"Okay, Guilmon, you can sleep-?" Takato was interrupted by a snore. He looked to the side and found Guilmon curled up on the floor next to his bed, dead to the world. "Right..." Takato looked at LadyDevimon, who was smirking and giving him the same look she had at the construction yard.

"I think I'll sleep with you, Takato." stalked towards the boy, her eyes glowing menacingly in the darkness of his room.

Takato tried to back up, but he was seized by the Ultimate, then tossed onto his bed. He curled up in a ball, preparing for the "assault", but it never came. Instead there was a bright flash of light, then the shifting of the bed as something much smaller than LadyDevimon jumped onto it.

Takato looked over to find a BlackGatomon smiling back at him.

"Hiya!" the small Champion waved.

Takato sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God." he was then pounced on by BlackGatomon, who, even though she had de-volved, hadn't lost her predatory smirk.

"Don't worry, Takato, I'm not going to do anything to you...unless you want me to." she leaned in and gave his cheek a long lick, then sat on his chest. "Now, I assume you won't be sleeping in those clothes?"

Takato nodded numbly, then watched as BlackGatomon jumped off of his chest and started raiding his dresser drawers.

"Um..." Takato was it in the face with a black A-shirt(better known as a wife-beater), a pair of boxers, and grey sweatpants.

"Now, go change, I'll be waiting." BlackGatomon gave him a wink as he walked by.

Takato chuckled nervously and went into the bathroom, closing and locking the door.

"Aw, you're no fun!" the black cat digimon pouted.

Takato breathed another sigh of relief. 'Damn, she's worse than Lillymon!' he then paled. 'Oh no, what will Lillymon do when she meets BlackGatomon? Or worse, if she meets her as LadyDevimon!' he decided it was too late to worry about such things, and that he'd deal with it in the morning. He changed into his sleepwear, then stepped out of the bathroom.

"Oh, you've got a tattoo? Nice." BlackGatomon purred, still eying Takato with that same look.

Takato rose an eyebrow. "What tattoo?" the digimon pointed at his right arm. "What the hell? This is the same symbol that's on Guilmon!" again, he decided it was too late to worry about anything. "Meh, whatever, it looks cool, so whatever." he laid down on his bed, then grunted slightly as BlackGatomon jumped on his chest.

"Goodnight, Takato." she gave him another lick, though this one was much closer to his lips than the last.

Takato smiled, in spite of himself. "Goodnight, BlackGatomon."

(Morning A.K.A. Four Hours Later)

Takato groaned as a ray of sunlight hit him in the face and tried to roll over, but stopped when he noticed the strange weight in his chest.

'What the...?' the boy thought as he slowly opened his eyes, then stifled a scream when he found two golden eyes staring back at him.

"Morning, Takato!" the BlackGatomon greeted cheerfully.

Instantly, memories of the previous night flooded back to Takato and his eyes widened a bit.

"Good morning, BG." he greeted back with a small, sleepy smile.

The digimon wrapped her arms around his neck, mindful of her claws, and hugged her Tamer. "You've given me a pet name!" she squealed in happiness.

Takato's eye twitched a bit. 'I thought it was just an abbreviation...'

Just then the door to Takato's room opened and his mother stepped in with a smile on her face.

"Glad you're up, Takato. I was coming to tell you that your father and I are going on vacation, and we wanted to know if you'd like to...come...with...us..." Mie finally noticed two new additions to Takato's room. One was the rather large, bipedal, glove-wearing cat standing on his chest, and the other was the much bigger red, raptor-like creature that was now looking at her with curious golden eyes. "Um..."

Takato sighed. "Don't worry, Mom. Remember those kids I told you about before, the ones with the digimon? Well, I'm one of them now! Meet BlackGatomon, and Guilmon."

BlackGatomon waved and smiled. "Hiya!"

Guilmon cocked his head to the side, then looked at Takato. "What's a 'Mom'?" BlackGatomon and Mie facefaulted while Takato just hung his head.

"You're not old enough to know that."

Mie looked at her son oddly. "If you mean what I think you mean, neither are you, young man."

Takato deadpanned. "Dad gave me 'The Talk' a while ago...and he had visual aids!"

A rather large tick mark formed on Mie's forehead and her left eye started to twitch violently.

"Oh, did he, now?" she turned on her heel and walked off. "Takehiroooo...Oh, dear hubby of mine, could you come here for a second, I'd like to speak with you." she sickeningly sweet voice sent chills down even BlackGatomon's spine.

Takato's eye twitched again. 'Dammit, I was saving that!'

Then another female came into the room. "Takato, watch out, your mother's on the warpath!" Lillymon looked back just in time to see Takehiro poke his head out of the bathroom and sneak into the master bedroom. When she turned, she saw the two digimon with Takato and took an involuntary step back, fear obvious in her eyes.

Takato rose an eyebrow. "What's wrong, Lillymon?"

BlackGatomon narrowed her eyes at the Ultimate. "She's afraid of us because we're Virus-types while she's a Data. It's quite natural." she then smiled. "It seems we're all special here!"

Takato looked at the cat, then at Lillymon, who seemed significantly calmer now that one of the Virus digimon was smiling.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm unique amongst my species, Guilmon is the first of his kind, you have three digimon partners, and she is much, much stronger than a normal Lillymon. Also much larger." BlackGatomon let out a yelp when she was suddenly lifted off Takato's chest and put face-to-face with a very angry Lillymon.

"What was that?" she used the same deceivingly sweet voice Mie had.

BlackGatomon smiled sheepishly. "I meant you are much taller than a normal Lillymon. Just look at you! Lillymon are normally just short of four feet, but here you are, standing tall at six and a half feet!" she looked the other digimon up and down with a smirk. "And you're also very..._well built_." she winked, causing Lillymon to blush and drop her.

Takato then gave Lillymon a brief explanation of what was going on, calming her down and keeping her fears at bay, though she was still afraid of Guilmon.

"Wait, BlackGatomon said you had three partners, but I only see two. Who's the third?" Lillymon asked, silently hoping that it could be her.

Takato and the cat digimon shared a look. "If you're still scared of Guilmon, you'll want nothing to do with the fourth member of our new little group." BlackGatomon assured.

Lillymon gave a hesitant smile. "Oh, come now, I'm sure he's not all that bad!" her smile widened when she saw Guilmon exploring the room, sniffing everything innocently. He certainly didn't betray his type with his actions.

"SkullGreymon." Takato said.

The color drained from Lillymon's face, then she became a gibbering wreck before fainting. Guilmon, moving with surprising speed, caught the Ultimate before she hit the floor.

"She's not as heavy as I thought she'd be." Guilmon observed. "She needs to eat more!" his own words reminded him of something. "Takatomon, I'm hungry!"

Takato chuckled. "I'm not a digimon." he looked at BlackGatomon. "I assume you're hungry, too?"

BlackGatomon nodded with a smile, then hopped onto Guilmon's head and pointed towards the door.

"To the kitchen, Guilmon!" both digimon giggled childishly as the red dinosaur charged out of the room and down the stairs, as per BlackGatomon's instructions.

Takato sweatdropped, then picked up the still unconscious Lillymon. His eyes widened when he saw how easy it was, she really was light! He put her in his bed, then picked out his clothes for the day, and went into the bathroom for his morning shower.

(Twenty Minutes Later)

Takato walked downstairs and was greeted by his "extended family". His mother and father, Guilmon, BlackGatomon, Lillymon. Even Calumon was present, munching on a cinnamon roll.

"About time you got down here! I was getting tired of having to wait for you." BlackGatomon huffed, eying the cinnamon rolls so she could grab at least two before Calumon ate them all.

Takato just grunted. "It's my morning routine. If we're going to be partners, you're gonna have to get used to that." he looked at the rolls. "Oh crap, I just brushed my teeth, too."

"So what? Do it again after you eat!" BlackGatomon didn't understand the effect toothpaste had on the taste of other things.

"It's not that. Breakfast is going to taste horrible, especially the orange juice." he grimaced at the mere thought.

BlackGatomon waved him off while wiping the drool from Guilmon's lips with a napkin. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just get over here so we can eat!"

Takato sighed, but complied anyway and took his seat. "Can someone please take the rolls from Calumon? I'm sure most of you remember what happened the last time we allowed him to eat too many of those?"

Everyone but BlackGatomon and Guilmon shivered at the memory, while said digimon just looked on in confusion.

"What happened, Takatomon?" Guilmon asked his Tamer after eating a roll himself. He was much more subdued in his eating than everyone had expected. Takehiro had even suggested raincoats or umbrellas to avoid flying food.

Takato's eye twitched. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that the "Takatomon" thing was going to be a constant in his life from then on.

"Calumon went on a sugar-induced rampage."

Both digimon looked at Calumon, who had moved on to bread rolls now that his sweets had been taken.

"How much damage could he possibly do? I don't even think he's heavy enough to knock over a vase!" BlackGatomon looked on skeptically.

"That's exactly what we thought. He's small, unassuming, and, at least on the surface, quite weak. But he-!" Takato stopped when he was hit in the head with a bread roll. But he just took the thing and ate it, then continued. "But he turned into an unholy terror once he had enough sugar in him. He kept playing pranks on people, making horrible one-liners, speaking in weird accents, and even got into someone's house and ran up their phone bill with prank calls." Takato couldn't suppress a smile as he thought back to him tutoring Calumon in the art of voice mimicry, and the proper way to make pranks calls and one-liners.

BlackGatomon just shrugged. "Doesn't sound all that bad at all." in fact, she was fairly used to things like that. When the Boss' other subordinates were bored, it was nothing but chaos at the base, which was exactly how she liked it. She hated having a tame and predictable life. She craved disorder, and loved to battle more than almost anything. She loved how, even against weaker opponents, the outcome of a fight was never certain. Anything could, and often would happen at anytime. Spontaneous earthquakes, other digimon joining the battle; she once even had to deal with a stampede of at least a thousand Monochromon, led by a very powerful Vermilimon.

This was another reason she knew she would enjoy having Takato as a Tamer. He was already drawing a lot of attention in the Digital World, even more now that he was the first human ever to have three partners. Information may have traveled fast in the Human World, but it was still nothing in comparison to the Digital World. If one digimon knew about something, he/she would tell everyone they knew. Then those digimon told everyone they knew, and so on, until everyone in that quadrant of the Digital World knew about it. Hell, by now, digimon in the Northern Quadrant probably knew about Takato, and were, more than likely, searching for a way to get to him.

It was her job, as well as SkullGreymon's, to protect both Takato and Guilmon from anything that could harm them. They were also to gain power themselves to they would be more useful in the "Great Battle" their Boss had mentioned. This was revealed to be the main reason they were chosen by the Boss for this most important mission. They may not have been his most powerful servants, not by a longshot, but they were two of his most trusted, and he saw the most potential in them. He firmly believed that Takato would bring out that potential, and then some, to make them some of the most powerful digimon in both the Digital and Human Worlds. Neither BlackGatomon, nor SkullGreymon knew what their Boss' true motives behind the plan were, but they knew that the reason for this was that they weren't meant to know, and that was fine with them, for the time being. They had been with the Boss for years, and he had never led them down the wrong path. He never lied to them, or any of his subordinates, he was simply very precise with his orders, and very vague on the reasons for those orders.

'When it's time for us to know, we'll know.' BlackGatomon never once doubted the Boss, not because she feared him, though that was part of the reason, but because he had never given her, nor anyone else, a reason not to trust him. He gave them power, if he felt they had done enough to earn it. He gave them a home, in the form of a massive island and an equally large castle, most of which was underground, hidden from prying eyes. The island was also protected by a strange digital field that kept it hidden from the outside world. As far as she knew, not even the Sovereigns themselves were aware of its location. And, most importantly of all, the Boss had given them all a purpose. A purpose beyond simply gaining power for the sake of doing it. He gave them goals to reach.

Most of his servants didn't even care about being powerful, they just wanted to make a difference in the world. They knew the more powerful you were, the better your selection of missions would be, and the bigger impact you'd have in "The Plan", as it was called. Each digimon under his command had a choice of which out of the millions of missions he/she wanted to take. They also could pick as many other digimon as they wanted to make a team for the mission. Such was the reason she was paired up with SkullGreymon. Many other digimon had chosen the guardian mission, and a decision could not be reached as to who would go. So, they did the only logical thing, and took the debate to the Boss.

(Flashback)

LadyDevimon found herself standing in a huge room with countless other digimon, of all shapes, sizes, and types, waiting along with her. She looked around and cursed, she really wanted this mission, but there were digimon in this room that were not only stronger than her, but all-around more qualified for the mission type; Bodyguard.

Diaboromon, MetalSeadramon, HiAndromon, WarGreymon, Machinedramon, SkullGreymon, BlackWarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, BlackMetalGarurumon, MasterTyrannomon, Myotismon, VenomMyotismon, Lillymon, Rosemon, Imperialdramon, Piedmon, Puppetmon, MetalGreymon, MetalMamemon, MetalEtemon, Garudamon, Phoenixmon, GranKuwagamon, HerculesKabuterimon, damn near everything at Ultimate-level or above was here! Hell, there was even an Angewomon giving her the Evil Eye from across the room!

She happened to look to her right and saw an abnormally large SkullGreymon looking around, seemingly thinking the same thing as her.

"So, you're all here because you want the job of protecting the human known as Takato Matsuki, correct?" the voice of the being only known as "The Boss" rumbled through the room, causing each digimon in attendance to stand at attention.

Every digimon nodded in unison, none daring to speak, lest they anger the being that could destroy them all at a moment's notice.

"Very well then, I will be evaluating you all. Don't worry, this won't take long. If I find you unsuitable, you will be transported back to the mission room, and only ten will remain here. Then I will choose only two out of those ten for this special job." and, with that, a glowing ball of crimson energy started to float around the room, hovering in front of every digimon. It would either tap them and they would be teleported back to the mission room, or it would pass them over, allowing them to stay.

The ball came to LadyDevimon and she gulped nervously. She had seen digimon much, much stronger than her teleported out of the room, and she had no doubt that she was next. She closed her eyes, just knowing that she was going to open them and see a massive list of mission cards laid out before her. A full minute passed and she didn't feel anything, so she opened her eyes and found that twenty more digimon had disappeared, but she wasn't one of them. She was then stuck in between wanted to squeal and jump for joy, or collapse in relief. She settled for letting out the breath she was holding and relaxing a bit.

(Ten Minutes Later)

The floating orb hovered at the front of the room, only ten digimon remaining before it, out of the hundreds that had walked in.

"Well, you ten are at the top of the class, so to speak." the Boss said.

LadyDevimon looked to her right and saw seven digimon: Diaboromon, Myotismon, SkullGreymon, Angewomon -who was still giving her the Evil Eye through that helmet-, Rosemon, WarGreymon, and Imperialdramon. She looked to her left and saw two digimon: MetalSeadramon, and HiAndromon.

The demon woman gulped again. Nine digimon, only two of which she thought she could take; Myotismon and Angewomon. She would have thought about the SkullGreymon next to her, but now that she was closer, she could tell that he was just as strong, if not stronger, than some of the Megas that had been in the room earlier.

"Out of you ten, only two will be picked. Do any of you wish to leave now? Maybe to avoid some form of embarrassment?"

None of the digimon backed down, and one even spoke.

"If you decide that we are not good enough to handle this mission properly, there is no shame in that. Besides, there are those of us here that specialize in destruction rather than protection." this, surprisingly, came from SkullGreymon, and it gained a few nods and chuckles from the likes of Diaboromon, Imperialdramon, and MetalSeadramon.

Even the Boss chuckled. "Glad you feel that way. Now, down to business. I will ask all of you five questions pertaining to the mission. Your answers will determine whether you stay, or not." the orb floated over to Diaboromon. "And, just to make sure none of you copy answers, these 'interviews' will be conducted individually." the orb tapped the Mega and both disappeared in a flash of light.

Two minutes later, the orb returned. Alone. "Next." it floated over to Myotismon, tapped him, and both disappeared in another flash of light.

Two minutes later, the same solitary orb returned. "Next." it floated over to SkullGreymon, and they both were gone.

(With SkullGreymon)

The gigantic Ultimate found himself inside of a room about half the size of the one he was just in, facing the orb.

"Are you ready?" the Boss asked, then continued after receiving a nod. "You have met your new Tamer for the first time, and he is terrified of you. How do you calm him down?"

The skeletal digimon thought about it for a second. This was truly a valid question for him, as his species, in general, were regarded as one of the most physically terrifying of all digimon. And their reputation wouldn't help matters in the least.

"First, I rid him of the fear of my species' reputation by engaging in an intelligent conversation with him. If that doesn't work, I'll simply de-volve to Champion or Rookie to make myself more approachable. I assume he has seen the Digimon television show in his world, and is familiar with both Greymon and Agumon, so I doubt a simple color change will scare him that much."

"So, you hope to turn fear into understanding, and, perhaps, awe?"

"Understanding, yes. Awe, no. I do not want him to be in awe of my power, all that will do is lead to more fear when he starts thinking about what I could do should I turn on him. All it takes is for someone to plant the seeds of doubt into his head, and his own thoughts will nourish those seeds until they grow and bloom into full-blown paranoia. I will not allow that to happen, not to my Tamer." SkullGreymon spoke with clear determination, he meant every word that came from his mouth.

Even if the word's didn't actually come out of his mouth.

"Hm." was the Boss' indecipherable reply. "Next question. Your Tamer has been captured and is being held hostage. How will you manage to get him back unharmed?"

"Well, for one, that is not a job I could do on my own. It requires stealth and cunning. I have the cunning, but stealth is certainly not my strongsuit. I'd, most likely, try to gain the aid of a digimon like a Ninjamon, or Myotismon. But, in my opinion, the likes of Renamon and/or LadyDevimon would be better suited to extracting the Tamer. They can easily sneak in and avoid detection. But, I'd have to go with a LadyDevimon because she has the power needed in case confrontation is unavoidable. LadyDevimon infiltrates the base and reclaims the Tamer, while I create a diversion by doing what I do best." SkullGreymon nodded to himself, committing the plan to memory, for he had a feeling he may need it at a later time.

"Alright then, next question. During battle, a stray attack is on a collision course with your Tamer. What actions will you take to ensure the safety of the Tamer?"

"Well, first, I'd have to keep the digimon I'm fighting at bay. But this question has many different answers, all depending on what kind of attack it is, and who is using it. Is it a Giga Blaster from a MetalGreymon? Or a Giga Cannon from a Machinedramon? Where am I positioned when the attack is used? Is there more than one digimon? How much power was put into the attack? Was it meant for me, or the Tamer? What condition am I in at the time? What condition is my opponent in? Is it all just a trap to get me to turn my back? Again, this is something that I may not be able to accomplish on my own. I would have to rely on my partner to keep the Tamer safe, while I make sure no other attacks get through or passed my defenses. For something like this, the likes of Rapidmon, Rinkmon, Renamon, LadyDevimon, SaberLeomon, or Allomon would be better suited for this because of their exceptional speed. Diaboromon is also a good choice because of his ability to make copies of himself. He may be weakened for it, but he can provide cover for the Tamer at all times. MetalSeadramon is also good, since he doesn't need his entire body to fight, and his defenses are top notch, he can leave a section of his body coiled around the Tamer to protect him from harm. GigaSeadramon is an even better choice. Not as powerful, but has better defenses, and the Tamer is much safer since he can actually go inside of GigaSeadramon and still see what's going on outside, and help me in battle should I require a boost."

The Boss had to hand it to him, SkullGreymon was one smart digimon. 'Just as long as he doesn't go all Super Computer on me, like those Machinedramon...it's creepy as hell.' seriously, never ask a Machinedramon what time it was.

They would answer you to the nanosecond, then keep correcting themselves because they spoke too slowly to keep up with nanoseconds. Ask for a digital display and you'd be fine, but most didn't know the Mega-level androids could do that. I mean really, who would think a machine made for the sole purpose of causing untold amounts of destruction could tell you the time? Then again, who would ask?

"You are quite the knowledgeable digimon, SkullGreymon. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was talking to your Mega form." the Boss referred to Machinedramon, the most common Mega form for a SkullGreymon. Contrary to popular belief, very few SkullGreymon digivolved into BlackWarGreymon. Normally, that form was reserved for the likes of the Virus version of MetalGreymon, usually called BlackMetalGreymon, or VirusMetalGreymon. "Question number four. You are up against an opponent that you have no hope of beating. If you are defeated, your Tamer is as good as dead. How will you make sure he survives this situation?"

"I will do everything in my power to distract the opponent while my partner takes the Tamer to safety, even if it means sacrificing myself to do it. This is why I'd chose a partner that has the ability to fly at high speeds, teleportation, or something of the like, and decent offensive and defensive power. The only digimon I can think of that combines all of these traits is LadyDevimon. Plus her ability to phase through solid objects is a major benefit. As with two of the previous questions, I would do all in my power, but, in the end, it would be up to my partner to ensure the safety of our Tamer."

"Hmm...Very well, final question. Will you always remain by his side? To be there to help him, no matter what his problem is, to the best of your abilities?"

SkullGreymon looked at the orb. "If that is my mission, I shall accomplish it to the letter. I don't half-ass anything, I either do my best, or I don't do it at all."

"And if the mission changes?" the Boss pushed.

"...It will all depend on what kind of..._attachment_ I have to my Tamer. If I do take a liking to him, I will not disobey your orders, should you decide to change the mission parameters, but mark my words, I will find a loophole." emotional attachments were something completely foreign to the Ultimate, for obvious reasons.

The Boss let out a chuckle. "Good, very good, indeed! You, SkullGreymon, are now one half of the team that will take this mission." the orb tapped SkullGreymon and they both vanished from the room.

When they reappeared in the waiting room, they could only think of one thing.

"Where the hell is everyone?" the Boss demanded, seeing only one digimon left in the room; LadyDevimon.

The demon woman shrugged. "I don't know. While we were waiting, I got to thinking. Eventually, I was off in my own little world. I snapped out of it a couple seconds before you got here and saw that everyone had left. Maybe they all had second thoughts?" she was being much too innocent for either SkullGreymon or the Boss' tastes.

"Fine. If you want the mission so badly that you would resort to annoying other digimon, who could destroy you without a second thought, to the point of them leaving the room to be rid of you, I guess you've earned it. Besides, from the answers SkullGreymon gave me, you would be his ideal partner anyway." the orb then disappeared, but the Boss' voice still lingered with his final message. "You both have two weeks until your mission begins. I suggest taking the first to get to know each other better, and the second to learn more about your new Tamer. And one final thing; do NOT fail me. If you do, you will not only face my wrath, but you will be responsible for the destruction of both the Digital and Human World!" then there was silence.

LadyDevimon glanced at her partner, who was staring down at her. "No pressure, right?" the much smaller Ultimate laugh nervously while flying up to sit on the fellow Virus-type's shoulder.

SkullGreymon gave her an odd look, then snorted. "Right, no pressure."

(End Flashback)

BlackGatomon sighed quietly and glanced at Takato. 'I hope I don't screw this up. SkullGreymon would kill me, and I don't want to think of what the Boss would do.' she shuddered, but recovered before anyone noticed and continued to eat.

XXXX

And there it is. Again, I end the chapter with lines from SkullGreymon and LadyDevimon!

A cookie goes to Murasaki Tsukimaru for correctly guessing the two mystery digimon in the first chapter as being SkullGreymon and LadyDevimon.

As you can see, to make up for the lack of action, I put in a bit of LadyD/Takato "action". I'm surprised no one said anything about this in the first chapter, but I said Lillymon was taller than Takato. Anyone that's seen Lillymon in Digimon Adventure(Season One) knows that Lillymon is only between three and four feet tall. Well, I couldn't have that.

In the story I'll be doing some interesting things with digimon, some of which have been seen before, but I'll try to make it original. I've heard that I'm pretty good at that. One thing I'm doing is making some digimon larger based on their power levels.

Like SkullGreymon. For anyone who's wondering just how big he is, he's ten feet taller than a normal SkullGreymon. As mentioned both SkullGreymon and LadyDevimon are much stronger than others of their kind, and the reasons for this will be explained later, but it has something to do with them being some of the Boss' most trusted warriors.

And I'm seriously not aware of what that little ghost thing on LadyD's shoulder is. I know it seems to be a part of her outfit, and it has a chain attached to it, but what does it do? Is it like the chains; just for show? Or does it actually do something? I've never seen her use either that gremlin or the chains for anything. She doesn't even rattle the chains to creep people out!(which she will do in this story)

Oh, and it may not look like it, but "Uniqueness" is a word. Most of you probably knew that, but there are always those few others...

If anyone has any questions, and I know you will, I'll answer whatever I can. I can't think of anything else to address right now, so...

Jason Out!


	3. Meeting Her Majesty

Hey there, peoples! Devilkeys Writing here with chapter three of Tamer of the Hazard!

Sorry about the delay, but it's really hard to watch episodes of Digimon Tamers now that I've found episodes of my all-time favorite cartoon, Godzilla: The Series. This also has me quite conflicted about my stories. Digimon, along with Pokemon, was the reason Godzilla was cancelled on Fox in the first place, so I don't know whether to hate it, or just like it for the video games and season three.

That, and me finding movies like Death Race online, and a promotional DVD rip of The Dark Knight have really been distracting me. Plus I'm starting to watch old '80's and '90's movies, like Slugs, Leviathan, and Event Horizon.

Anyway, here it is, and I hope you all enjoy it!

XXXX

Breakfast was always a happy occasion in the Matsuki Home, full of laughter and cheer. Bad jokes with even worse comebacks, the occasional flying bread roll, and laughs all around. BlackGatomon and Guilmon were new to this, but thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. Both of them suddenly stiffened and looked out of the window behind them, Guilmon growling and BlackGatomon simply narrowing her eyes.

"Another digimon is Bio-emerging." Lillymon said, but she also knew that it was a weak one, so she paid it no mind. She wasn't a fighter anyway.

Calumon's reaction, however, was completely different. "Yay, a new friend!" his ears extended and he flew out of one of the open windows chanting "new friend" over and over.

Everyone, besides Guilmon and BlackGatomon, sighed.

"There he goes...again." Takehiro said.

"Lillymon, could you go get him, please?" Mie asked. Though no one knew exactly why, she was always worried about the little In-Training digimon.

Lillymon smiled. "Of course, no need to ask." she got up from her seat and walked towards the door, brushing up against Takato along the way, earning a smirk from BlackGatomon.

"Lillymon, make sure that girl and her Renamon don't get a hold of Calumon. They seem to be very...indiscriminate with who they destroy." Takato warned.

Lillymon nodded. "Don't worry about it, he couldn't have gotten far, and I'm a lot faster than the little creampuff." she smiled at Takato, then stepped out through the side door and took to the skies.

(Nonaka Residence)

Rika, after waking up with nothing to do and finding she was alone in her home, took to walking around the property. She didn't know why, but she had the strange urge to constantly keep moving.

'Maybe I have RLS?' the girl thought.(1)

"Rika, a digimon is bio-emerging." Rika turned to meet the cool gaze of her digimon partner.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

(Ten Minutes Later)

Rika could see the fog over the tree line now as she ran across the bridge that led to a construction site in the middle of Shinjuku Park. She passed a couple we were being...intimate with each other and sneered in disgust at the public display of affection, and in broad daylight, no less! But those thoughts were quickly sat on the backburner as she pulled out her purple-tinted sunglasses and ran through the fog of the digital field.

'Get it in gear, Renamon, or we'll miss all the fun!' she silently thought.

Once she made it to the center of the field, she took off her shades and stood a safe distance from the target, which she couldn't clearly make out, but she could see a faint silhouette.

"There it is." the yellow kitsune appeared next to her Tamer. "Renamon..."

"I'm on it." the fox's eyes flashed brightly for a second, then information on the enemy digimon appeared on the holographic display of Rika's D-Arc.

"Goblimon. Let's see, he cheats, he's got a fireball and Gobli Strike." Rika scoffed after reading the info. "It's just a Rookie, where's the sport in that? Walk all over him, Renamon."

"He's toast." with those words, Renamon leapt into the air and dove towards Goblimon, flipping in midair and striking the other Rookie with a kick to the chest before he even knew what was going on.

Goblimon didn't seem to be effected by the attack, and simply rubbed his chest before charging at Renamon. He swung his club horizontally, but Renamon ducked the strike easily and hit him with an uppercut as she jumped away.

"You missed." she taunted in a sing-song tone as she did a corkscrew flip in the air and landed quite a distance away from Goblimon, making him use even more energy by running after her.

Meanwhile, Calumon was just arriving at the bridge, having been distracted from his main goal of finding a new digimon friend by the two humans making out below him.

Landing next to them on the same concrete fall guard they were leaning on, the In-Training digimon waved at them. "Hi! My name's Calumon, do you wanna play?"

The couple broke their kiss to stare at the little digimon.

"Did you say that, little dude?" the guy, who looked like a bit of a burnout or surfer, rose an eyebrow as he looked at the weird animal.

His girlfriend, however, had a different reaction. "Oh, what a cute little doll! Did you get that for me, honey?"

"Takato told me that humans didn't have special attacks, and now I see why. You're gonna have to open your mouths much, much wider if you wanna swallow each other!"

The couple recoiled. "Wha-What did you say?" the man slowly stepped back.

The woman screamed, "An alien! It wants to swallow our brains!" she gripped her boyfriend, holding on for dear life.

"Don't do it, man, I need what little brains I have!" the couple then ran away, screaming about a horrible, brain-eating monster that tried to attack them.

"Hey!" Calumon tried to call them back, but they kept running. Thinking that he had done something wrong, Calumon's ears deflated along with his mood. The red triangle on his forehead glowed and he turned towards the digital field, suddenly remembering his original mission. "New friend, new friend!" he chanted as he raced off towards the digital field.

Lillymon spied a speck of white from above, but lost it as it headed into the trees, where she couldn't follow.

"Ah crap." the Ultimate muttered. "Now I have to go on foot." she landed and ran off in the direction of the digital field, where she knew Calumon was headed. 'He's a quick little rascal, I'll give him that.'

Back with Rika and Renamon, the vixen was still toying with the goblin, dodging his every attack and countering with a well-placed kick or punch.

Goblimon charged again, club held high, then swung down, trying to bash his enemy's head in, but all he hit was concrete as Renamon jumped over his attack and kicked him in the face.

"Missed again." Renamon continued to taunt the poor digimon, knowing that he stood absolutely no chance against her. She landed near a section of the fence surrounding most of the construction site and leaned against it, pretending to check her claws for dirt.

The Goblimon grew even more enraged and charged at Renamon again with a furious battle cry.

"Whoops!" Renamon flipped over Goblimon and landed behind him as he ran head-first into the fence, nearly going through it. "Aw, so close." she mocked, sounding like she was talking to a child throwing a temper tantrum.

The Goblimon's face turned red, though whether it was from anger or embarrassment was unknown, probably both. He screamed again and charged, smashing the concrete where Renamon was once standing, having jumped away at the last second.

"He's not losing strength, Rika!" Renamon looked at her Tamer.

"Yeah, this is boring." Rika deadpanned, then sifted through her cards. "Let's see, which one...Ah, a boost card!" she smirked as she swiped the card through her D-Arc. "Digi-Modify! Hyper Chip, activate!"

Renamon instantly felt the power boost, but something else drew her attention. Goblimon was looking directly up at her and grinning.

The green Rookie was then incased in a red light as his data shifted into a more powerful form. The light dissipated, revealing that Goblimon had digivolved into one of his Champion forms, Fugamon.

Rika's eyes widened. "He digivolved...But how? He shouldn't be able to!"

Fugamon just chuckled, eying Renamon anxiously.

(Matsuki Bakery)

Guilmon's eyes went feral again and he started to growl once more. He was then smacked on the back of the head by BlackGatomon.

"Don't growl with your mouth full." she scolded.

Guilmon swallowed his food and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry." he went back to his breakfast, all thoughts of the new digimon forgotten.

Takato just glanced at the red dinosaur. 'Maybe I should have included a longer attention span in his design...'

(Renamon vs Fugamon)

Fugamon leapt into the air, then came crashing down with his bone club, shattering the concrete, but not hitting his target.

Renamon jumped back, avoiding the powerful attack. It seemed that digivolving only made him more powerful, as he was still severely lacking in speed and intelligence.

"Renamon, I'm going to be very vexed if you lose." Rika warned, though she knew it was a hollow threat. She knew Renamon wouldn't lose, she couldn't lose.

"Don't worry, Rika, just watch." Renamon jumped over to the steel skeleton of a small, one-story building, prompting Fugamon to follow. She jumped away again as he swung his club, demolishing the structure before turning back to her, only to receive a hard kick to the face.

But that didn't put him down, so Renamon followed up with a stiff knee to the chin and a flurry of punches and another knee, finally knocking the larger digimon down.

"That all you got, big boy?"

Fugamon just roared at her in reply, standing up to charge again, though his weak legs made it difficult.

Renamon, finally bored with the "fight", decided it was time to finish him off. "Diamond Storm!" and, just like that, Fugamon was turned into a living dartboard and obliterated.

Rika smirked. "That's more like it, Renamon, not even a Champion-level digimon can stand in our way anymore. Now, download Fugamon's data." Renamon did as she was told, absorbing the Champion's data and increasing her strength.

Rika didn't even bother to shield her eyes from the light, as she was used to it by now. "Next time you'll win...without my help." just as she was about to turn around, a childish, high-pitch voice called out to her.

"Hi there, do you wanna be friends?"

Rika looked around for the source of the voice, but found no one around in the clearing fog. She felt someone tapping on her shoulder and looked to see Renamon pointing down in front of her. She followed her digimon's finger and saw a small white digimon standing before her. "...Who are you?" she crossed her arms, not liking the fact that she had to physically restrain herself from grabbing the small digimon and hugging the data out of it.

"I'm Calumon! What's your name?" Calumon introduced himself happily, having no idea of the danger he was putting himself in.

Rika's eye twitched, everything this little creampuff did was cute! She didn't like cute...no, scratch that, she _detested_ cute.

"I don't see why you'd want to know that, since you won't be around long enough to remember it. Renamon..."

Following the unspoken order, Renamon punted the small digimon...HARD, knocking him out and sending him high into the air.

Calumon was stopped in mid-flight, caught by the strong, but gentle arms of Lillymon, who glared furiously at the human girl and her partner.

"What's the big idea, attacking him like that? He didn't do anything to you!" the Ultimate narrowed her eyes dangerously.

Rika cocked her head to the side. "He's nothing but a lump of data, and I'm putting him to good use. He may not be much, but data is data. Why do you care? You're nothing but data as well."

Lillymon hissed in anger as she landed in front of the Tamer and her digimon, who stepped up, anticipating an attack.

The flower digimon scoffed. "You think you can take me, Rookie? Fine, since you seem to enjoy picking on those weaker than you, how about a taste of your own medicine?" her right hand morphed into her Flower Cannon, which she pointed at Renamon and Rika.

Renamon fought the urge to step back and slightly turned towards Rika while keeping her eyes on Lillymon. "Rika..." for the first time ever, Renamon sounded unsure; apprehensive about a battle.

Rika grimaced, trying to cover her own unease. "Whatever, we'll finish this another time, I've got a schedule to keep." it was a lie, and a pretty lame excuse to weasel out of a battle, but, considering her life, it could very well have been true.

Lillymon scoffed. "Yeah, whatever. But don't think you're getting out of this unscathed." she smirked and bolted towards Renamon with speed the fox could never hope to have in her Rookie form.

Before she even knew Lillymon was in front of her, Renamon received a vicious kick to the chin that lifted her at least twenty-five, maybe even thirty feet in the air. The quickness and sheer power behind the blow ensured that Renamon was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

"Renamon!" Rika, in a rare display of giving-a-damn, ran to her digimon and cradled her head in her lap, trying to wake her.

Lillymon smirked and walked straight up to Rika, idly noticing that the girl didn't even flinch, refusing to leave her partner's side. 'There's hope for her yet.' Lillymon thought. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen...Hard, by the looks of it." Lillymon's attention was drawn to the small digimon in her arms giving a pained groan as he awoke. "You're so lucky Calumon's waking up. I don't want him to see what I plan on going to do to you and your partner." the Ultimate hissed and grabbed Rika by her shirt collar and hoisted her into the air with on arm, lifting her so they were eye-to-eye. "But remember, the only reason you're leaving this place in one piece is because I allowed it. Remember that, on this day, your life was in the hands of a 'lump of data'." she glanced at Renamon and her smirk widened. "In fact, before you use that term ever again, take a look at your Renamon's face. A good, long look." she dropped Rika and flew into the air, back to her home at the bakery.

Rika fell to her knees and crawled over to Renamon, who was slowly regaining consciousness. The girl found herself doing what Lillymon told her to and looking at Renamon's face.

'What did she mean...!' Rika gasped as she saw it...a trickle of blood flowing from Renamon's busted bottom lip. Rika tentatively reached out and wiped it away. "This...This is blood...Digimon...can bleed..." Rika closed her eyes and grimaced as she felt a headache coming on.

"Rika, are you alright?" Renamon's worried voice cut through the confusion that had invaded Rika's mind. "That Lillymon...did she hurt you?"

Rika looked at Renamon's lip, noting that there was no blood, only a small bruise. She also saw that the blood on her fingers was gone as well. 'Did...I just imagine that? But that Lillymon saw it, too...' deciding that the subject was much too confusing to think about at the moment, Rika shook her head. "I'm fine, Renamon..." she thought of her next words carefully. "...How...How about you?"

The vixen stood up, rubbing her sore lip. "It's nothing, I've had worse." while that was true, it had been a while since she'd been hit that hard.

Rika nodded, not really believing Renamon, but not willing to question her at the moment.

"Come on, we're going back home." Rika had absolutely nothing to do for the day, so she decided that maybe watching some Saturday morning cartoons would relieve some of the boredom. But she couldn't think about much of anything right now, just that fact that she had seen Renamon bleed. She felt the liquid on her hand, even felt the slight warmth it carried. But it had simply disappeared without a single trace. The questions that it brought up in the girl's mind ultimately led up to her questioning reality itself...or, at least her perception of it.

(Matsuki Bakery)

After breakfast was done, Takato had volunteered to wash the dishes, which was why he was standing before the kitchen sink at the moment.

"Hey, Mom, what did you want to talk to me about earlier?" Takato asked his mother as she walked by.

Mie turned to her son. "Oh, right, I was going to tell you that your father and I were planning going on a little vacation, but we decided to push it back until your Summer Break."

Takato nodded and set the last plate out to dry. BlackGatomon then walked into the kitchen.

"Takato, your friends, Kazu and Kenta, called, they said they were going out of town with their parents and that 'The Plan' was postponed until next weekend." she informed the boy.

Mie looked at her son suspiciously. "Plan? What plan? What are you up to?"

Takato held up his hands in an "I surrender" gesture. "I don't know anything about it, I swear! Kazu never told me anything, he just bolted when he saw what time it was. And Kenta didn't know anything about it either, until now, I guess...I feel left out now."

Mie laughed at her son's expression. "You say that like it's a bad thing. Being left out of one of Kazu's 'plans' is far better than participating in them."

Takato wanted to argue, but she had a point. Besides, he ended up taking the fall for anything that happened, even when he tried to stop it, so it would be nice to give his reputation some time to heal. But this left him with one major problem on this beautiful Saturday: what the hell was he going to do now?

While he may not have liked to participate in most of Kazu's pranks and schemes, even he had to admit that they were more entertaining than most television programs. It was like the kind of stuff you'd see on YouTube, but even dumber.

'Well, this is just great. Here I was, looking forward to this weekend, and now it's turned into a big, boring pile of steaming crap.' Takato grumbled something under his breath.

It was then that BlackGatomon came back into the kitchen, this time riding on Guilmon's back.

"So, what're we gonna do today?" BlackGatomon asked.

Takato sighed. "I don't know, my plans for the weekend just went out the window."

Guilmon cocked his head to the side. "Then shouldn't you go get them?"

Takato sweatdropped, then a light bulb came on in his head...while the one above him went out. "Really bad timing. Dad, light's out." he yelled to his male parental unit. "I guess today will be 'Educate Guilmon' day. I'm gonna take you both on a tour of the town, so to speak. Show you the normal places I hang out at so you'll know where to find me if you ever need to."

BlackGatomon nodded, it was a good plan, and they would need to know where they could find their Tamer when problems arose. Of course, she already knew most of his normal hangouts, but there was bound to be someplace that he hadn't visited in the time she and SkullGreymon had been watching him.

Guilmon was just happy that he'd get to go outside and explore.

"Mom, I'm going out with BlackGatomon and Guilmon!" he yelled to his female parental unit.

"Make sure no one sees them!" Mie yelled back.

"Do you do that all the time?" BlackGatomon scratched her cheek.

"Yep. I don't know the exact details, but one day the bakery was really busy and Mom couldn't leave the register, so she kept yelling at me and Dad when orders came. We yelled back, then she yelled some more, and it was like that for the entire day. Don't know when it became an everyday thing, but now it's normal for us. No one can ever come into this place and expect peace and quiet." Takato walked towards the door, but stopped just before opening it when something shiny and red caught his eye. "My goggles!" he literally leapt over the couch and snatched the red and black goggles off of the coffee table.

BlackGatomon sweatdropped. "So...I guess you're a fan of the show."

Takato's eye twitched. "Everytime I put these on, someone always assumes I'm a Tai/Davis wannabe! Can't a guy watch Digimon and wear goggles without being labeled an impersonator?" he walked out of his home with an exasperated sigh, Guilmon and BlackGatomon following closely.

(Thirty Minutes Later)

Takato had shown both of his new partners his usual haunts. The arcade, where he went when he was bored or was challenged to a game by Kazu. The playground, where he made a sport of humiliating Kazu and Kenta in card battles, often using their own tactics against them. School, where Guilmon had nearly scared the principal, who was just leaving after a faculty meeting, into a heart attack. And now he was heading towards Shinjuku Park, his most frequent stomping ground.

BlackGatomon had done a good job of keeping Guilmon out of trouble, though he did get away from her quite a bit, mostly when she was distracted by looking at Takato's butt, just like right now.

BlackGatomon silently slid from Guilmon's back to the ground and began to creep up on Takato.

Guilmon, for his part, was highly confused by the change in the cat digimon's behavior, but was distracted by a squirrel that darted across his path and scampered towards a tree. The red dinosaur wasn't about to let the mammal go and immediately gave chase.

Takato could hear the heavy footfalls of Guilmon rapidly heading away from him to the right. "Guilmon?" he called, but received no answer.

He was about to turn around, but stiffened as he felt himself being groped.

BlackGatomon kneaded Takato's firm cheeks with a devious smile. "My, my, Takato, you should really wear tighter jeans. Something like this shouldn't be hidden away by baggy pants." she squeezed a bit harder, making the boy jump.

"Please let go of my ass..." it wasn't that he didn't enjoy it, but they were in a wide open area, and Guilmon was currently running loose, trying to fry a squirrel!

BlackGatomon's smile turned into a full-blown grin as her paws stayed right where they were. "It seems as though I can't let go! Maybe I have magnets in my gloves, or something, 'cause they're _firmly_ attached to these steel buns of yours." she gave him another squeeze.

Takato briefly thought of an episode of Family Guy, but shook his head to clear the images and get back to business.

"Listen, I'm going after Guilmon whether you let go or not. You can either help, or be dragged along for the ride...just don't rip my pants with those claws." his cell phone then rang, a heavy metal ringtone startling BlackGatomon and causing her to release her Tamer. "Hello?" Takato answered his phone. "What? Now? Guilmon just got away from me and I have to chase him down before someone sees him, so I can't help out at the moment...No, BlackGatomon's free, however." he gave the cat a sinister smirk. "Yeah, she'll be right there." he closed the phone. "You have to help Mom make bread. There seems to have been a sudden influx of customers after we left, and now, thanks to you, I can't leave to help her out. So you will go in my place."

BlackGatomon opened her mouth to argue, but settled to hanging her head and sighing. "Fine." she grumbled before disappearing, a skill she had carried over from her LadyDevimon form; limited teleportation.

Takato sighed and took off after Guilmon, following the patches of singed earth and wood that marked his trail.

(Twenty Minutes Later)

"And what have we learned today?" Takato looked at a slightly dazed Guilmon, who had an odd lump on his head.

"Squirrels are not for burning." the reptilian replied, repeating the words Takato had said to him earlier.

"And?"

"Though it's fun, chasing squirrels is not acceptable behavior." Guilmon rubbed the lump, wincing in pain and withdrawing his claws.

"And?" Takato pushed again.

"My head is not harder than reinforced concrete." apparently, the squirrel had led Guilmon back to Takato's school and had slipped into a crack in the wall. Guilmon, with his one-track mind, was only concerned with following and burning the animal, and ran smack-dab into the wall and knocked himself out cold.

Takato had found him unconscious with a nasty bump on the top of his head, then saw the rather large dent in the wall, put two and two together, and laughed his ass off.

"There we go." the hairs on the back of Takato's neck suddenly stood on end and he whirled around, only to see nothing but more trees and the deserted path behind him.

"What's wrong, Takatomon?" Guilmon asked, trying to see whatever his Tamer had seen.

"...It's nothing...And I'm not a digimon."

"Aren't you?" Guilmon honestly looked perplexed, still not having a firm grasp of what a human really was.

"No." Takato said, casting a final glance over his shoulder before walking off. For a second, he swore that he saw something red standing out against the greens and browns of the park, but dismissed it as a flower.

"Oh, okie dokie!" Guilmon jogged to catch up to his Tamer.

"Say, Guilmon, do you like being outdoors?" Takato asked his seemingly random question.

The dinosaur nodded furiously. "Yeah! There's so much to do out here, so much to explore and learn about! Being out here is fun!"

Takato chuckled at his partner's childish behavior. "And I assume you don't want to be cooped up in my house all the time, so I'll make you a deal. We find you a place to live here in the park, where you can do whatever you want, as long as you aren't seen by anyone. I'll bring you food everyday, and we can play when I have some free time. In return, all I ask is that you promise me that you won't cause any trouble around here. I don't want to turn on the TV and hear about a red dinosaur being spotted in Shinjuku Park on the news. Do we have a deal?"

Guilmon nodded and grinned. "Deal!"

Takato smiled. "Alright then, I think I know just the place, come on." he picked up his pace and took a path off to the side of the main one, hidden by bushes.

This path led to a set of stairs going to the top of the largest hill in the park, at the top of which sat a concrete shed that was about the same size as a normal tool shed. It was in a very secluded spot, on a path that almost no one traveled on. But, to get to that path, they had to go through a fairly large clearing, which would leave them exposed, since that clearing was used for quite a few soccer games.

"I really don't like being out in the open like this...I feel exposed." Takato muttered as he and Guilmon walked alongside the chain link fence that separated the clearing from the trees.

"Takatomon, something's wrong. I feel weird." Guilmon shifted nervously.

"Do you feel extremely anxious?"

"What?" Guilmon had no idea what anxious meant.

"Do you feel the need to move?"

"Oh, yeah...I want to get out of here." the digimon looked around.

"Do you have a weird tingly feeling in the back of your neck?"

"Yeah...I don't like it."

Takato nodded to himself. 'So, we ARE being stalked, eh?' "Come on, boy, let's get going. I'm with you, I don't like being out here." both digimon and Tamer began to walk faster.

Then Guilmon snapped his head to the left and growled, his Viral Instincts coming to the surface.

"Wha-?" Takato was interrupted by a yellow blur smashing into Guilmon and sending him flying into the fence, where he laid, dazed and confused.

"What a lousy fighter...But a fight's a fight." a familiar voice called out, coming from a red-haired girl leaning against a tree, who was staring at Takato with a scowl.

Takato simply rose an eyebrow. "You...You were in my dream...and so was that Renamon." he looked at the fox digimon, who didn't take her eyes off of Guilmon. He decided that it would be best not to let on that he had known about Rika and her partner for quite some time.

Rika scoffed. "So you're weak and weird, good for you." she looked at his goggles and snorted. "And you're a Tai wannabe? Now I know you can't take us, little boy, so why don't you just go home and leave your little Petmon here with us?" Renamon slowly stalked towards the downed dinosaur. "We'll take _good_ care of him for you."

Takato's eyes narrowed. "Bite me, princess. Guilmon!"

Guilmon's eyes suddenly snapped open and he unleashed a large fireball on Renamon, blasting her away.

Takato winced. "Oh, and the fox is down! That HAD to hurt!" he looked at Guilmon, who was standing up and ready to fight, his earlier disorientation little more than an act.

Renamon quickly hopped to her feet and narrowed her eyes at the opposing digimon. Something wasn't right about him, and it was causing her instincts to go crazy. All she wanted to do was take Rika and get as far away from these two as possible. But she knew Rika would be having none of that, so she squashed the part of her mind that was screaming at her to run, and stood her ground.

"Renamon, I'll be very vexed if you lose to Petmon other there." Rika said coldly.

Takato cocked his head to the side. "Wow...Can I ask you a question?"

Rika glared at the boy. "What is it?" she demanded.

"That's what I want to know. Just what is it that crawled up your ass? Or are you just not a morning person?" Takato tried to keep a straight face, but was failing miserably.

Rika went red from a combination of embarrassment and rage. "I was going to have Renamon go easy on your little pet, but now you've gone and made me mad. Renamon, walk all over him!"

Takato winced. "Ooh, you really need to change your catchphrase." he pinched his throat and spoke. "'Renamon, walk all over him.'" he mimicked Rika's voice with startling accuracy. "Wow, even I can't make that sound good." he chuckled.

Rika began to grind her teeth. This boy was extremely annoying! "Shut up, Gogglehead! The time for talking is over, it's time to fight!" she pulled out her D-Arc.

Takato simply smiled. "Right back at ya', Pineapplehead." he also pulled out his D-Arc, his smile widening as Rika's face grew redder.

"Renamon!" Rika yelled.

The kitsune digimon leapt into the air and crossed her arms as an energy ball appeared in front of her.

Takato groaned as he knew exactly what this was. "Guilmon, just keep you're eyes from being hit, don't dodge it." he ordered.

Guilmon gave his Tamer an odd look, but trusted his judgment and simply stood his ground.

"Diamond Storm!" the energy ball shattered like glass and the shards floated around Renamon, each pointing at Guilmon, then flying down at him.

Guilmon just closed his eyes and took the hits and nearly giggled. The sharp shards did little more than tickle him as they bounced off of his tough hide.

Takato smirked, his hunch had been correct. Not only did Renamon lack the sheer power to defeat Guilmon with that attack, she was also at a type disadvantage, with her being a Data and Guilmon being a Virus. Also, when creating him, Takato had given Guilmon especially tough skin. He didn't know what made him do it at the time, but now he was glad that he did.

"Any other bright ideas?" Takato called with a grin, this was a lot of fun!

Rika narrowed her eyes, then smirked. "Yeah, a few. Digi-Modify! Power, activate!"

Renamon instantly felt stronger and gave a smirk of her own before disappearing. "Power Paw!" she reappeared at Guilmon's side and caught him with a solid punch to the side of his head.

Takato winced and rubbed his own jaw, he swore he'd felt a bit of that punch.

"So, that's the way you wanna play, eh?" Takato looked at Rika. "Digi-Modify! Power, activate!" he slashed the card through his D-Arc.

Guilmon's eyes snapped open as Renamon attempted to smash him into the ground with another Power Paw. He lunged and bite down on her forearm, refusing to let go. The battle quickly degraded into a wrestling match between the Rookies, which Renamon was losing.

Rika pinched the bridge of her nose and grumbled something under her breath. "Renamon, quit playing around!" she took a card out of the leather pouch on the back of her belt. "Digi-modify! Armor, activate!"

Renamon tried to kick Guilmon off to get a clear shot with her new cannon arm, but he held on and nearly dislocated her shoulder. With a small grunt of pain, Renamon stood to her feet and prepared to strike Guilmon right between the eyes.

"Guilmon, you've got a tail; use it!" Takato instructed.

Guilmon let go of Renamon's forearm and spun rapidly, catching the fox in the cheek with his muscular tail and sending her to the ground again.

"You've got her now!" Takato cheered, then frowned as he saw his partner pin Renamon to the ground with one foot on her chest and his right arm pinning down Renamon's weaponized arm. Then he began to charge a Pyro Sphere. 'What the hell? I didn't say to kill her!'

"STOP!" two voices called out at once.

Guilmon launched his fireball into the air and ran over to his Tamer, all thoughts of battle wiped from his mind at the moment.

Renamon phased over to Rika's side, but was greeted with only a dirty look that said, "We need to talk."

Both Takato and Rika looked over and saw a boy around their age with blue hair, brown pants, and an orange vest standing on top of an incline. But what really drew their attention was the Terriermon by his leg.

"It's you..." Takato said, though his thoughts were more along the lines of, 'So, the pacifist arrives.'

Terriermon giggled and ran towards them. "It's me, it's him! And aren't you happy to see us!"

"Another digimon?" Rika muttered to herself as the lop-eared dog digimon ran by her and over to Renamon. "Okay, this is getting just a little too weird, they're popping up everywhere!"

"Uh-huh." Takato nodded in agreement.

Terriermon stopped in front of Renamon, eying her cannon arm cautiously at first. "You looked pretty good there, in the beginning at least. In the end...well, didn't you feel silly rolling around in the dirt like that?"

Renamon's fur bristled a bit at the comment. "Hmm?"

"It's not very smart to mouth off to someone bigger than you."

Takato snorted. "The captain of our school's soccer team is bigger than me, and I still mouth off to him. But, of course, you know that already, considering that it was you who stopped me from putting a dent in his face." he was still ticked about that, since it had started a rumor about how Takato had needed his "kung-fu friend" to "save him" from an ass-kicking.

Henry ignored the comment, knowing that Takato was still steamed about last week's incident.

"Henry, momentai!" Terriermon started doing a weird little dance.

For those few seconds, both Takato and Rika were thinking the same thing; 'Guess he doesn't know what "decaf" is.'

Henry rolled his eyes. "You take it easy." he turned to Rika. "What are your digimon fighting about, anyway?"

"That's a dumb question. What else are digimon supposed to do?" Rika scoffed.

"Anything they want to do, they're not fighting machines, and they're not our slaves, or pets, either." Terriermon climbed up his Tamer's body and into his arms, wrapping on ear around his neck. "They're our friends, you know? They just wanna do the same sorta things we do."

"Well, Renamon wants to fight...And so do I, for that matter." she then turned and walked away.

Takato snickered. "Yes, I'm sure Renamon loves taking fireballs to the face!" he laughed, as did Terriermon.

Rika stiffened, but continued walking without a reply, followed by her Renamon, who's fur bristled again before she faded away, like a ghost.

"...And the ninja disappears into the night, once again taking up her duty as her mistress' silent and unseen guardian." Takato spoke like an old sage, even having his eyes narrowed to small slits and carrying a large stick as a staff.

"...Where'd you get that?" Henry sweatdropped.

Takato looked at the stick. "I...don't really remember." he then tossed it aside and turned to Henry, his expression hard as stone. "I wasn't looking for a fight, but she threatened my friend, and I wasn't about to let her get away with that."

"But you can't just go around fighting anyone you please!"

"And I don't! She started it, just like everyone else I get into fights with. But YOU can't go around breaking up fights whenever you please. If people want to fight, let them, it's their business." Takato turned to leave and called over his shoulder. "I know you don't like fighting, and all that, and neither do I. But sometimes it's unavoidable. As you've seen here today, there are some people that don't listen to words, and won't let you just walk away. Come on, Guilmon." Takato continued walking, Guilmon jogging to catch up.

He sighed. "Why can't people just get along?" he wasn't expecting an answer, but he got one anyway.

"Maybe that's their way of saying 'hi'?" Terriermon said.

"That would be like me punching someone in the face instead of shaking their hand or bowing." Henry sighed.

"...I would pay to see that..." Terriermon giggled at the thought.

"Terriermon...You don't have any money."

"Yeah...but your mom does..."

"Terriermon!"

"Momentai, Henry! I was just kidding, geez, lighten up!"

None of the kids, or there digimon, noticed the woman dressed all in black hiding behind a bush just fifty feet away.

"This is Maybel," the woman spoke into the communicator inside of her wrist watch, "tell Bigbird that I've found the targets."

A small crackle of static from the watch was followed by the voice of another woman. _"Bigbird?"_

"He'll understand." "Maybel" put her no-flash camera away after snapping a final picture of the blue-haired boy and his digimon.

_"Meh, it's your ass, not mine."_

(With Takato)

"And here I was, thinking she was cute. Turns out she's more of a..." Takato glanced at Guilmon, who seemed to actually be paying attention to him, "witch than she was in my dream!"

Guilmon cocked his head to the side. "What's a 'witch'? Don't you eat those?"

"No, that's a sandwich. A witch is a mythological creature that..." he knew that an in-depth explanation would only create more questions, so he went with a simple one. "A witch is something we humans call over female humans when they're overly mean or rude."

Guilmon nodded. "What do you call a male if they're mean?"

Takato could have broken out a list, but he chose the one that would lead to the least amount of questions and was the least vulgar. "A jerk."

Guilmon nodded again, then saw a squirrel zip by just as he was about to ask another question.

"Squirrels are not for burning." Takato reminded the dino.

Guilmon turned back to Takato, then realized that he didn't remember what he was going to ask, so he just dropped it and continued taking in the scenery.

"I guess we'll go to the shed some other time, when there aren't such...hostile park-goers." his phone rang, startling him with the extremely loud, squealing guitar riff, making him release a high-pitched yelp. The noise caused Guilmon to stop dead and stare at his Tamer. "Not. A. Word." Takato warned before answering his phone. "You've reached Takato's phone, 'Kato speakin', how may I help you?" he spoke with a distinct drawl.

_"Takato, you'd better get back here right now!" _BlackGatomon's voice screamed angrily, forcing Takato to take his ear away from the receiver.

"Geez, what's wrong with you? I think my ear is bleeding..."

_"If you don't get back here, someone's gonna be bleeding, and it's not gonna be you! Lillymon's on the warpath because Calumon got hurt, and we can't calm her down!"_

Takato groaned. 'Lillymon must not have caught up to him in time.' "Fine, I'll be there as soon as I can, just don't let her leave!" he snapped the phone shut and took off, Guilmon following automatically.

This wasn't good, not at all. While he had never seen Lillymon angry, he knew for personal experience that bad things happened when nice people got pissed off.

XXXX

(1) RLS stands for Restless Leg Syndrome, a condition which I also have.

Not much to say about this chapter, pretty much all standard stuff, apart from the Family Guy reference.

For those that want to complain about Takato being OOC, we've established that Takato won't be the same as he is in the series already. But a few changes everyone should expect are as follows:

The ability to fight

Intentional stupidity, meaning he will often say or do something dumb in an attempt to lighten the mood or calm someone down

Odd liking for sharp objects, specifically knives

Uncanny accuracy when throwing objects(Wonder what Mie'll do when she discovers that the eggs are rapidly disappearing...)

Some grasp of battle strategy...though it will mainly shine only during card battles.

And he will often curse without realizing it, which is a habit that he picked up from his birth father(For those wondering, I stated in the second Important Note on Tamer of the Hazard Test Version 1 that Takehiro is Takato's stepfather in this story.)

Oh, and as stated in this chapter, Takato wears his goggles for reasons other than the Digimon show.

Get ready for another long delay, as I've been watching a shitload of movies online lately, and I'm also taking art classes due to me taking a look at a picture I drew. I thought it was something I did in middle school...turns out it was something that I drew two weeks ago...Yeah, I suck that much. Another reason is that I've got this odd urge to draw Zilla that just won't go away.

For those that don't know, Zilla is the official name of the monster in the 1998 piece of shit film "Godzilla". He's also known as GINO-**G**odzilla **I**n **N**ame **O**nly, and Fraudzilla. For those that do know Zilla, I'm referring to the kickass Zilla Jr. from the cartoon, not the movie. And, to show just how kickass he is, Toho allowed him to keep the name "Godzilla" while they stripped it from Jr's dad! Though people still call him Zilla, or Jr/Junior to avoid confusion, while calling his parent GINO, also to avoid confusion.

That's pretty much all I have to say, and, as usual, any questions will be answered to the best of my abilities.

Jason Out!


	4. Rage

Yes, yes, yes, I am back once again, and I've brought chapter four of Tamer of the Hazard with me!

Not all that much to say right now, so enjoy!

XXXX

The people wandering the streets of Shinjuku was treated to a rare sight: the fabled "Matsuki Typhoon" blowing through on a Saturday! This almost never happened, and what's more, there seemed to be another red blur following behind it. This, of course, struck terror into the hearts of some, who's only thoughts were along the lines of, "Oh, God, there's two of them now?"

But Takato could care less about all that. He didn't give two shits about some kids that were going to swear they saw a red dinosaur until they were forty-seven and visiting a shrink. He didn't care about people screaming that they had seen a dragon running down the street. All that mattered now was making sure Lillymon didn't blow something, or someone, up.

There were some that said Lillymon's Flower Cannon attack was quite weak. Then there were those who had felt it and were no longer around to tell the tale, but it didn't take a genius to know that they'd strongly disagree with that statement.

Takato arrived at his home in record time, just under seven minutes, panting and sweating like he'd just run a marathon, which would be pretty accurate. Guilmon wasn't fairing any better than his Tamer; probably worse, since Takato was at least somewhat used to running that fast for long distances.

Going through the side door, Takato called out to anyone within the house. "Hello?" in the next few seconds, Takato would be cursing his decision to open his big mouth.

"_Takaaaaatooooo..._" the deceptively sweet voice of Lillymon floated into the boy's ears and he instantly stiffened as the temperature in the room seemed to drop by several degrees.

"H-Hello, Li-Lillymon...C-Can I h-help y-you?" Takato was stuttering terribly, obviously terrified of the obviously pissed Ultimate.

Lillymon's slender arms wrapped themselves around Takato's neck while she rested her head on top of his. "Takato, remember those rules you told me about when I first started living here?"

Takato was starting to see where the conversation would eventually go. "No. Even if she's a bi...witch," he corrected himself, remembering that Guilmon was still standing there, "I can't let you go after her."

Lillymon snorted lightly and started toying with a lock of Takato's hair. "What about her partner? Can't I at least rough her up a little?" she whined.

Takato stifled a chuckle. "Look, I may need her in a later battle, you never know. While I don't like her attitude at all, I can't deny that she's a good Tamer with a powerful partner. Lousy person, good Tamer. If you delete her partner, she becomes absolutely useless, and that 'tude of hers will only worsen. But I'll make you a deal..." Takato turned himself around to face Lillymon, only to find his face pressed between her breasts.

Lillymon blushed, embarrassed at first, but she soon grinned started to tease the poor teen. "My, my, aren't we a naughty boy today?"

"Not by choice." came Takato's muffled response before he managed to lift his head enough to breathe and speak properly. "Like I said, I'll make you a deal. Two weeks. If, by the end of those two weeks, Rika's still a witch, you can do whatever you wish to her partner. If she still believes that digimon are just lumps of data, she's not fit to be a Tamer. But, at the very least, try not to delete Renamon. It's not her fault that her Tamer is a ruthless, cold-hearted killer, and she shouldn't have to pay the price for her Tamer's behavior."

Lillymon sighed. "Yeah, I guess it's not her fault that she's a mindless drone with no moral fiber."

"Sarcasm noted. But I wouldn't go that far. I'm sure Renamon, on some level, knows what she's doing is wrong. Since she's also a digital being, deleting other digimon like this should be something like homicide to her...Though, on the level that they're doing it, it may qualify as genocide. I don't know. Why am I even thinking about this?" Takato pulled himself away from Lillymon. "Listen, I'll take care of those two, you don't need to get involved. They want a fight, fine, I'll give them one, but this is our battle," he gestured to himself and Guilmon, "not yours."

Lillymon looked like she wanted to protest, but a pained moan from a waking Calumon stopped her and she sighed. "Fine, just be sure to give 'em both hell...You know, for Calumon."

Takato chuckled. "Whatever you say."

After the Ultimate walked off to tend to Calumon, BlackGatomon head poked out from behind the couch. "...Okay, I'm officially impressed. You defused a potentially dangerous situation before any significant damage could be done!" she gave him a thumbs up. "You rock!"

Takato rose an eyebrow. "You don't have your gloves on...And you have thumbs...I didn't know that."

BlackGatomon sweatdropped. "No shit, Sherlock." she jumped off the couch and onto Takato's shoulders, holding on to the straps of his goggles to keep herself balanced while he walked.

"That wasn't so hard, you made it sound like she was about to strangle a baby, or something."

"She wouldn't listen to me! Anytime I so much as got close to her, she'd throw something at me!"

"So? You're a cat, you should be able to dodge." Takato shrugged.

"She almost smashed a TV on my head!"

Takato suddenly stopped. "...You saved the TV, right? Right?"

"Oh, me? Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for your concern." BlackGatomon smacked Takato on the back of the head before jumping to the floor.

Takato was about to complain when he heard the bell chime, signaling a customer coming through the door.

"Shit! Take Guilmon and hide, quick!" Takato dashed out of the room and over to the cash register. "Hello, welcome to the Matsuki Bakery, how may I help you?" he used his "working voice", giving the illusion of the perfect little boy that every parent wanted.

It never ceased to amaze Takato how many people actually fell for it.

"Oh!" the customer, an attractive woman looking to be in her late twenties, jumped and turned to face Takato, then sighed while placing her hand over her heart. "You scared me, I didn't see you there a second ago."

Takato laughed nervously, fighting down a blush. "Sorry about that. I'm sorta the ninja of the family, so I get that a lot."

The woman laughed. "Well, I suppose I should be honored to meet a real ninja!"

"Oh, you'd be surprised at the number of ninjas there really are. In fact, you'd probably never get a good night's sleep ever again..." Takato's eyes shifted around like he was on the lookout for some unseen adversary.

"And here I was, thinking ninjas had no sense of humor."

Renamon instantly came to Takato's mind and he chuckled inwardly. "Most don't, but I am what's known as 'Ninjester'. Whereas others come out of nowhere and deliver swift death upon their unsuspecting victims, I deliver swift one-liners, then slip back into the shadows." he was starting to really get into his current character, even giving him a unique voice.

"You're an 'Ask A Ninja' fan, I see." the woman laughed again, it had been a while since she'd met someone who even knew what "Ask A Ninja" was.

"You mean hear...You cannot see with your ears...Unless you're Daredevil. And yes, I am a fan, I even have the t-shirts. Now, down to the business at hand. What is it that you seek on today's quest? I noticed you looking at the cinnamon buns, and I advise you to stay far away from them!" Takato eyed the cinnabuns like they would jump out of the case and attack him at any moment.

"Oh? Why's that? I love cinnabuns!"

"My Dad made those...and he sucks at making sweets!" a ball of dough suddenly flew out of the kitchen and nearly smacked Takato in the head, but he caught it at the last second, without even looking at it. "You see? He gets angry because he doesn't want the truth to get out! But thank you, Dad, for giving me the chance to show off my ninja skills!" he bowed deeply, which turned out to be a big mistake.

One second Takehiro was in the back making bread, the next he was standing in front of Takato with a large baguette over his head. The stiff piece of two-day old bread came crashing down on Takato's head and shattered like a baseball bat made of glass, but not before doing some damage.

Takato yelped in pain and surprise and stumbled back holding his head. He ended up tripping over his own feet and falling. Though he tried to grab the counter to hold himself up, the attempt failed as his hand hit an empty tray that had been left out, causing it to fly up in the air as he fell down.

"Ow..." Takato mumbled as he fell on his back, then frowned when he noticed the metal tray coming back down towards his face. He brought his hands up just in time to catch it, then stood back up. "You still suck at making sweets!" another dough ball flew out from the back, which Takato blocked with the tray. "Sorry about that." he turned back to the customer, but was surprised to see her face turning red from suppressed laughter.

"Don't...worry about it..." the woman couldn't take it anymore and let loose, guffawing like there was no tomorrow. "You guys are hilarious!" she doubled over.

(Four Hours Later)

After a few more jokes and a lot more laughing, the woman had finally gotten what she wanted and had left, saying that she'd definitely be coming back, if only for a good laugh.

But for the next four hours things had been really slow. Not only was there not many people, but the ones that did come in weren't interested in talking. They weren't rude, or anything, they were just quiet, and most seemed to be in a rush. It was now 3:30pm and boredom was reigning supreme.

"Okay, that's way too much information." Takato said while turning away to hide his growing blush.

"Well it's true! That's how it happened! That was also the first time I'd ever used my chains." BlackGatomon, who was sitting on a stool behind the counter and out of sight.

"Just because it's true doesn't mean I needed to know, or wanted to, for that matter!"

BlackGatomon smirked and pointed at Takato's face. "That nosebleed says different."

"I...Just shut up." Takato went into the back to get some paper towels.

This was when Lillymon caught sight of him, and the fact that he was bleeding, and rushed to help.

"Are you alright, Takato?" the Ultimate asked, seconds away from overreacting.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a nosebleed, that's all." Takato blew his nose to get the rest of the blood out.

"How'd that happen?"

Takato glared at BlackGatomon, who simply waved back with a cheeky smile. "Blame the cat."

"Blame his hormones." BlackGatomon countered.

"Blame her for taking advantage of them!"

"Blame him for letting me!"

"..." Takato didn't really have a comeback for that one.

"Son, I think you lost that round." Takehiro patted his stepson on the shoulder. "I honestly don't know why you even try anymore."

"I don't, it just comes naturally. Then, before I even realize what I'm doing, I've already been beaten!"

"Such is the fate of most men." Takehiro sighed melodramatically.

"Hey, you two, get back to work!" Mie shouted from back in the storage room.

"Yes ma'am!" both father and son ran back to their posts.

BlackGatomon made a sound like a cracking whip and grinned as Takato glared at her.

"Quiet, you." the bell over the door chimed again. "Gogogogo!" he shooed the feline digimon back into the kitchen. "Welcome to the Matsuki Bakery! How may I help you today?"

"Quiet down, I'm lookin'!" the customer, a short, pudgy, balding, middle-aged sack of crap gruffly replied, waving Takato off.

"Okay, sir, take all the time you need!" Takato said with a smile, but the twitch in his eye told a different story. 'Rude little prick.'

For nearly fifteen minutes the douchebag wandered around the store, inspecting each and every item, then scanning over them again, like he had missed something before.

'What is he doing?' Takato scratched his head as the man looked back and forth between two doughnuts. The thing was, they were both the exact same thing! 'And we're having a two-for-one sale on doughnuts today!' Takato's eye started to twitch again.

"Hey, you, come here." the asshole demanded.

Takato cracked his neck once, the first sign of danger, and walked around the counter to stand next to the man. "Yes, how may I help you?"

"What's the difference between these two?" he asked, pointing at the doughnuts.

'Well, I don't think you should be here, the fat-free doughnuts are on the other side!' "We're having a two-for-one sale on all doughnuts today, sir, so you don't have to decide between them, you can get both." even though he was close to giving the little fucker a concussion, he still tried to be helpful and polite.

"And what if I don't want both?" the man asked sarcastically.

'Maybe you want the whole shelf?' "..." Takato remained silent, but he did roll his shoulders until he heard a series of pops.

"Yeah, didn't think about that, now did you? Now, what's the difference between these two?" he demanded again.

"I don't know...One's bigger than the other?" that was the only difference he saw.

"Really? Wow, I didn't know that! I have eyes, you smartass!" the man hissed.

'Hit him! Hit the little fuckrag!' Takato's mind screamed, but he remained calm on the outside. "Sir, size is the only difference between these two doughnuts. I should know, I made them myself." he had to use his left hand to hold onto his right to keep it from firing out at the little roach.

The roach turned to him with narrowed eyes. "You're a mouthy little turd, aren't you?"

'BASH HIS FUCKING SKULL IN!' Takato was starting to get a headache, the second sign of danger. "No, sir, I apologize for being rude."

"Finally respecting your elders, eh? Hmph, you're a useless little punk, that's what you are. I'll buy these two." the man opened the glass casing and grabbed the two doughnuts with his sausage-link fingers and placed them into a bag before waddling over to the counter.

"Nice weather we're having, wouldn't you agree?" maybe he could distract himself from physical violence by making small talk.

"What are you, the fuckin' weatherman now? Just ring up my food!" the man took out his wallet and drummed his miniature hotdogs on the counter impatiently.

_"Smash his head through the glass and use a shard to cut his throat..."_ a voice within Takato's head whispered with a sinister rasp.

'What? No!' Takato shook his head slightly. "Right away, sir." he punched in the purchase. "That'll be a hundred and fifty yen, sir."(1)

"What? So you're a con-artist now? What a rip-off!" the man grumbled to himself as he rummaged through his wallet, flinging coins out carelessly and leaving Takato to stop them from rolling off the counter and onto the floor. "There, one-fifty." he took his bag and made to leave, but was stopped by Takato.

"Wait, sir, this is only one-forty." 'This little bastard tried to cheat me!'

The man turned and glared at the boy. "Are you saying I cheated you, boy? You calling me a liar, boy?" he stomped back up to the counter, causing a considerable tremor, and leaned over the counter, getting right in Takato's face.

'Did you eat fucking roadkill for breakfast?' "No, sir, I'm simply stating that you made a mistake in counting and you're ten yen short."

That didn't seem to help matters at all. "How do you know you didn't make the mistake? Maybe your clumsy ass let one of the coins roll off the counter!"

_"Punch him in the face, jump over the counter, and break his neck..." _the voice was back.

'Who are you?'

"Are you listening to me?" the man yelled, scaring off two potential customers as soon as they opened the door.

_"Make him bleed..."_

'No...'

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the man tried to snap his fingers in front of Takato's face, but they were too fat.

_"Beat him into the ground..."_

'No...It's not right...'

"Dammit, you worthless maggot, answer me!" the man's face was red with rage.

_"Neither is what he's doing to you! Make him suffer!" _the voice was growing louder, more insistent, and his headache was getting worse by the second.

'I don't want to...'

"What the hell's wrong with you, boy? You retarded, or something?" spit was flying out of the man's mouth as he insulted the boy that had done nothing to deserve the verbal bashing.

_"There's a butcher knife that your stepfather left out about a foot away from your hand, put it to good use and gut him like a trout! Destroy him, mutilate him, KILL HIM!"_ the voice was screaming at Takato, just like the man.

"You shouldn't be yelling at him like that!" a girl's voice yelled from behind the man, causing him to turn around.

"Shut up, girl! I'm not done with your little boyfriend here!" he turned back around and made the biggest mistake of his pitiful life. "Answer me when I'm talking to you, you little bastard!" he raised his chunky right hand and smacked Takato across the face with a resounding "crack".

In that single moment multiple things happened. One, Takato's headache suddenly went away. Two, the sinister voice in his head started laughing maniacally. And three, Takato finally snapped.

Not effected by the weak slap in the least, Takato also swung his right arm, landing a solid fist on the man's jaw and sending him sprawling across the floor. Not giving him time to recover, not that he would anyway, Takato jumped over the counter and descended upon the helpless fatass with all the ferocity of a rabid wolf.

Fist after fist and boot after boot connected with the man's body, luckily he was unconscious after the first two blows. But that didn't stop Takato, he just continued to wail away on the guy. To anyone watching, the phrase "beating a dead horse" might have come to mind.

"Takato, stop!" Takehiro finally came out to see what all the commotion was and hopped over the counter to grab hold of his son before he murdered the man.

But Takato wasn't stopping, he was too far gone. This was a rage that hadn't been seen in two years, ever since Takato stopped seeing his psychiatrist. He had reverted to a primitive state of mind, and was little more than a wild animal in human form now. There was a threat in the area, and that threat needed to be eliminated; it was as simple as that to him right now.

'I forgot how strong this boy is!' Takehiro grunted as he struggled to keep Takato out of stomping range of the man's head. "MIE! Get in here, quick!" he screamed for his wife.

"What's wrong, h-Oh my God, Takato!" Mie dashed in and started to drag the man's body away, then noticed the other occupant of the store. "Jeri, call an ambulance!"

The girl nodded fearfully and ran for the phone, careful to keep a lot of distance between herself and...whatever the hell Takato had become.

"Dammit Takato!" Takehiro pulled his fist back and socked Takato in his right cheek, causing him to stumble back. "Get a hold of yourself!"

Takato winced as his headache returned and his racing heartbeat pounded in his ears. It wasn't enough; his rage hadn't been sated yet. He began to step forward again to go for the downed man, but was stopped once again by his stepdad punching him.

"Takato, down in the basement." Takehiro crossed his arms, signaling that there would be no argument tolerated. "Now."

Takato backed up a few steps, then nodded and turned to walk into the kitchen. On the way he noticed Jeri staring at him, fear obvious in her expression.

"...I'm sorry you had to see that, Jeri." even if his head was pounding and his bloodlust was still running high, he was at least kind to his friend.

"I-It's alright...He h-hit you f-first, right?" Jeri tried to smile, but she was simply too scared at the moment.

Takato simply nodded and opened the door to the basement. "Take whatever you want, it's on the house today." it was the least he could do to make up for scaring the holy-high hell out of her. His parents would understand. "I hope." he muttered as he closed the door behind him and switched on the light so he wouldn't fall down the stairs.

Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase Takato walked over to a duffle bag sitting on top of a crate in the corner, opened it, and took out a pair of black fingerless fighting gloves. He then went over to the battered training dummy set up in the middle of the room.

It was a simple replica of a human torso and head, padded all over, attached to a flexible metal pole, which was attached to a foundation weighed down with multiple metal plates that replicated the weight of an average male. It also had height adjusters for shorter combatants, like Takato, and was already set at his height(2), since he was the only one who used it. Takehiro used the punching bag hanging from a chain in the corner.

Taking up the stance taught to him by both his biological father and his stepfather(3), Takato got to work on the bag, punching and kicking it like a professional fighter.

_"You could have done a lot more to that parasite..." _the voice had returned once again.

'Shut up.' Takato wasn't about to allow himself to be distracted by whatever this thing was.

_"You could have annihilated him..."_

'Didn't I tell you to shut up?' "Left jab, left jab, right hook, left uppercut, right cross!" Takato used the basic combo his father at taught him years ago.

_"You could have killed him..."_

'Go away.' "Body shot, left hook, right hook, spinning backfist!" this was the basic combo his stepfather had shown him, though a spinning backfist was a risky move for a beginner. But Takato wasn't complaining.

_"It could have been great practice for your revenge..."_

'What are you babbling about now?' "Right jab, left jab, left jab, feint body blow, right hook, grab head, right knee!" Takato drove his knee into the center of the dummy's torso, where the diaphragm would be on a human. He was moving on to more advanced movies, such as fakes and grapples.

_"Your father...You want revenge on him for what he did to you and your mother..." _

Takato faltered a bit, but quickly shook it off and continued to tear into the dummy.

'You don't know what you're talking about, so shut the hell up!' the voice was starting to cross the line. "Feint right hook, left jab, right side kick, left side kick, right spinning heel!" reflecting his annoyance, his blows were becoming more vicious, more damaging, more lethal. That last kick packed enough power to easily fracture someone's skull.

_"Don't deny it, don't you dare...You know you want it, I know you want it, even your parents know you want it...You want to kill him..."_

'No, I don't want to...Then I'd be no better than him...' "Right hook, grab head, left knee, right knee, right uppercut, right jumping spin kick!" the final kick landed on the face of the dummy with enough force to send it reeling back with the weighted foundation coming up off the floor. This attack would not only have knocked an opponent out, but he would be left with broken teeth, a broken nose, and severe whiplash.

_"They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..." _

'Be quiet...' the voice was really pissing Takato off, and he was nearing his breaking point again. He started one final combo, each blow packing enough raw power to be an instant knockout. "Right hook..."

_"No, I don't think I will..."_

'And why not?' "Left hook..."

_"Because you need to hear this..."_

'The hell I do!' "Right straight..." Takato's teeth were grinding now, though a more obvious sign of his anger was the face of the dummy, which was developing cracks in the hardened plastic.

_"Yes, you do...Why do you continue to lie to yourself?...It accomplishes nothing...For once in your life allow yourself to be true to what you really are..."_

'What's that supposed to mean?' "Left uppercut..." the punch hit the dummy's chin, snapping it up and causing it to stay there as a bolt popped out of the jointed metal "spine". This meant that the punch had more than enough power to break a human neck.

_"There! You see it?...With that one punch, you could end the life of another...Your real self is finally coming to the surface once again..."_

'That...That was a mistake! I put too much power behind it, that's all...' "Right front kick..." the chest of the dummy dented slightly. This kick would have broken ribs easily, possibly sending jagged fragments into vital organs.

_"You did it again...Another killing blow...You're subconsciously preparing yourself as we speak..."_

'This is because you're pissing me off!' "Right body blow..." again, a rib-breaking hit, but something was different now...It felt like his right bicep was starting to burn.

_"Is it now?...You can feel it...It's going to come out...And you will become what your true self...What you were always meant to be..."_

'You make it sound like I'm not even human...' "Left cross..." the burning grew more intense.

The voice suddenly began to chuckle. _"Are you?"_

Takato's eyes widened as the burning hit its peak and his body moved on its own. He did a single back hop, then bounced forward again on the ball of his right foot. Then, shifting his weight to his left leg, Takato snapped his right out with all his might, tearing the dummy's head off with a high side thrust kick, also known as the stepping side kick.(4)

Takato stumbled back and fell flat on his ass, staring at the headless dummy in horror. That thing's "neck" was made to be many times stronger than a human's, as it was meant to take constant abuse, and yet he had just taken it completely off! Given, he had weakened it before, but still, it took a LOT of power to do something like that...Much more than he should have been able to muster.

"What's happening to me?" he suddenly smelled something burning and looked at his right arm. He yelped and jumped up when he noticed that his sleeve was on fire and slowly burning away. "Ah, shit!" he patted the fabric to get rid of the embers. While doing this he caught sight of himself in the large mirror that he often used to check his fighting stance. "What the hell?" he slowly stepped up to the reflective glass.

The hazard tattoo was now on full display and was still glowing a dull orange color. He brought his fingers to it and hissed before drawing them back, the symbol was still scalding hot.

"Takatomon?" Takato jumped when he saw Guilmon's reflection in the mirror.

"Are you okay?" BlackGatomon, who was riding on Guilmon's back, looked a bit distraught. She had heard the belligerent customer go off on her Tamer and had tried to go out and "remedy" the situation, but she was held back by Lillymon, who now knew that, even as a Champion, her new "rival" was quite powerful. Both Guilmon and Calumon had eaten themselves to sleep, so they were no help, and Takato's parents couldn't hear what was going on over all of the noises and timers of the different machines.(5)

"...Yeah...I'm fine..." Takato turned back to the mirror to find that his tattoo was no longer glowing. "...I'm fine..."

"Good, that means you can explain what happened up there." Takehiro said, leaning on the wall at the bottom of the stairs.

"He was awesome!" BlackGatomon jumped from Guilmon to Takato, giggling like a schoolgirl.

"I don't see anything 'awesome' about attempted murder. Would you mind explaining just what the hell got into you?"

Takato hung his head. "I...I don't know what happened...I tried to be nice, to be helpful, but he just wouldn't let up...I don't know what came over me. The more he talked the angrier I got...And when he slapped me...I just snapped."

"Takato, you know you're supposed to call either me or your mother when someone like that comes in! We've been through this a hundred times before!"

"Thirty-six times, actually, and I know what I was supposed to do, but I haven't had an outburst in two years! I thought I could handle it...Guess I was wrong. I'm sorry."

Takehiro sighed heavily. "I'm just glad you held out until he hit you first, and you're lucky that our cameras caught the whole thing. You've come a long way these past six years. I remember when you used to be such a happy kid...Always running around and playing...Then, after the...after the Incident, you were always either angry or depressed. You refused to talk to anyone but your mother, avoided physical contact like the plague...In fact, you damn near became a hermit! Spending most of your time down here with the punching bag or that notebook of yours...But like I said, you've come a long way since then, and I'd be a lying bastard if I said I wasn't proud of you." Takehiro ruffled Takato's hair.

"Thanks, Dad." Takato laughed, playfully swatting the hand away.

The man whistled as he caught sight of the headless training dummy. "Wow, how the hell'd you accomplish that?"

Takato rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I...don't really know...It kinda just...happened."

Deciding not to question his son any further, Takehiro turned to Takato with an odd glint in his eyes. "Say...Do you mind if I put the camera footage up on YouTube? I'll bet it'll be a hit in the first week!"

"Dad!" Takato lightly punched his stepfather's arm.

"Hey, just because you took that dummy's head off doesn't mean you can take the Big Dog!" Takehiro smirked and took a pair of red fighting gloves, like Takato's, out of his back pockets. "But you're welcome to try!"

Takato also smirked before getting into his previous stance, mimicking his stepfather's almost perfectly.

Takehiro chuckled. "Don't take offense to this, but your father used to use that same stance...Makes it look like you're leaving yourself open..." he went in for a quick left jab, which was easily blocked by Takato. "When, in reality, that's exactly what you want them to think..." he went for another left jab, but this turned out to be a fake out and he hit Takato with a right body blow when he went to block a shot to the face. "But you're not as quick as he was." the older male was forced to eat his own words as his stepson's right fist buried itself in his gut.

"How about now?" Takato leaned back to avoid a right hook.

"Better, but still not fast enough!" before his son could react, Takehiro went low and swept his legs out from under him. As soon as Takato hit the ground Takehiro grabbed right arm and fell backwards while dragging Takato's arm between his legs.

Takato saw what he was going for, but reacted too late to counter. Takehiro put his left leg across Takato's neck and the right across his chest, then took the captive arm and placed the hand under his right arm and place his own hands on the elbow and triceps of Takato's captive arm. He pulled back and twisted the arm in the opposite direction it was meant to bend, resulting in minor hyperextension of the elbow and hyper-rotation of the shoulder.

"No fair using submissions!" Takato grunted before tapping on his Dad's knee to signal his surrender. In all the years he'd been into mixed martial arts, or MMA, no one had ever gotten around to teaching him submission holds or how to counter them. Hell, he didn't even know Guard positions! So, basically, once someone got him on the ground he was through.

"All's fair when there's no referee!" Takehiro laughed and ruffled Takato's hair again after putting his gloves back in his pockets.

"Gee, thanks, Dad, that's a great motto to teach to an impressionable youth." the teen said, sarcasm obvious as he rubbed his slightly sore arm.

"I thought so, too. Come on, let's go find one and corrupt him!" Takehiro looked about ready to run up the stairs and seriously start looking.

"Sometimes I swear you're insane." Takato deadpanned.

"Let's make a club! I'll go make the sign-up sheets, you go gather anyone you think would want to join!" the man bolted for the stairs. "Honey, start up the computer and the printer, I need to use the graphics program!"

"Dad!" Takato screamed, though he was still laughing at his stepfather's antics.

"I know, I know, I'm insane. But seriously, go out and have fun, it's Saturday!"

"But all my friends are out of town." it sort of bothered Takato that he was only talking about two people.

"Then make new ones." with that last bit of advice, Takehiro continued up the stairs and out of sight.

"...You're both nuts." BlackGatomon's eye twitched, but then she smiled. "I finally feel like I fit in somewhere!" she trapped Takato in a hug, laughing like the maniac she just admitted herself to be.

"Can I be insane, too?" Guilmon asked, his childish naiveté making him all too willing to join in the fun, no matter what it may be.

"Sure, the more the merrier!" BlackGatomon hugged Guilmon as well, which he readily returned while cheering.

"Yay, I'm insane, I'm insane, just like Takatomon!"

Takato shook his head. "The more the scarier, if you ask me." he muttered.

"Then we won't ask you. Now come on, let's go out!" BlackGatomon got on Guilmon's back and rode him up the stairs.

"...Note to self: refuse all future requests for a cowboy hat..." he smiled and followed them up, though at a much more subdued pace. On the way up he rubbed his arm again, but stopped suddenly when he went higher up and noticed something missing. Or, more accurately, NOT missing. The large hole that the tattoo had burned through his sleeve was gone. "This..This is just too much." while he was happy that he wouldn't have to replace one of his favorite shirts, he was more than a little scared at the same time. Something was happening to him, and he had an unshakeable feeling that it wasn't going to turn out well.

"Takatomooooonnnn!" BlackGatomon, doing her best impression of Guilmon, whined from upstairs.

"Not you, too!" Takato ran up the stairs, deciding that he wasn't going to figure it out anytime soon, so he wasn't going to worry about it.

Minutes later Takato found himself walking down the street in broad daylight with Guilmon and BlackGatomon by his side.

"Remember, Guilmon, you're a guy in a cosplay costume as the result of a lost bet, and BlackGatomon, you're a stuffed animal that I bought for my cousin's birthday." Takato whispered to his digimon.

"Why do I have to have such a degrading role?" BlackGatomon whispered back, making sure that only her lips moved.

"Would you rather have stayed home?" BlackGatomon didn't respond. "I didn't think so. Now come on, we're going back to the park."

As they walked down the sidewalk they, understandably, got many odd looks. Afterall, it wasn't everyday you saw a red velociraptor walking down the street with a cat on its back.

"Wow, Mom, lookit, a digimon!" a little boy dragged his mother over to Guilmon.

"Oh, he's not really a digimon, just my little brother in a suit. He wanted to go to the convention as Agent Smith from The Matrix, but he lost a bet, so I'm making him go as a digimon." to add to the effect, Takato grinned evilly at Guilmon while the dinosaur scowled in return.

"I've never seen this digimon before, what's he called?" this kid was a digimon nut in the making, and Takato was more than happy to help him along.

"I created him myself, his name's Guilmon."

The boy then spied the other digimon. "Cool, a BlackGatomon!"

"That's just a toy for my cousin, it's her birthday next week." Takato was the only one to notice the "toy's" eye twitch.

The boy nodded then looked to his mother. "Hey, Mom, can I go trick-or-treating as a digimon this year? Please?"

The woman sighed and pulled him away. "You're going as a scarecrow, and you're gonna like it!"

The boy groaned, but didn't complain otherwise. "Bye, Guilmon!" he waved.

"Bye-bye!" both Guilmon and Takato waved.

"Wow...I can't believed that actually worked...I mean the kid I understand, but everyone else?" Takato snorted. "I mean look around! Nobody gave you a second glance after I said you were a guy in a suit and that she was a doll!"

"Which is something I didn't appreciate, by the way." BlackGatomon huffed while still keeping the facade of a toy.

"Whatever, just be glad I didn't say you talked when your paw was squeezed. The kiddies would've had a field day with you."

BlackGatomon instantly shut up, not liking the idea of being squeezed and pinched by little kids one bit.

As they neared the park, Takato suddenly halted and dragged them both into an alleyway.

"What's the big idea?" Guilmon moaned, not liking having his tail pulled so hard.

"Shh! Something's going on at the park entrance!" Takato poked his head around the corner, as did both his digimon.

There was something going on, if the line of unmarked black vans was anything to go by.

"Maybe it's one of those secret government conspiracies you humans are so paranoid about?" BlackGatomon suggested.

"I'd tell you to stop watching so much TV if I wasn't inclined to agree with you." Takato narrowed his eyes at the men walking around in what looked like blue biohazard suits, black goggles and breathing masks. "Maybe they're looking for aliens or something..."

"Now who watches too much TV?"

"...Or maybe they're looking for Guilmon. That's the entrance closest to where we fought Rika and Renamon."

"You got into a fight and didn't tell me? Shame on you, I'm your partner, too, ya' know!" BlackGatomon crossed her arms and pouted.

"What would be the sport in that? You can digivolve to Ultimate, yet Renamon can't even go to Champion!"

"Well, that's her fault, not mine." the Champion continued to pout.

"Meh. Come on, let's go somewhere else." with that, Takato and his digimon slipped further into the alley and to a different street to avoid detection.

(Meanwhile, At The Location Of Their Battle)

A group of men, all dressed in the same outfits as the one's Takato had seen on the street, walked around the area that had been a battleground just hours before, waving scanners back and forth.

"We've been out here for hours, and we've still got nothing! Hell, does anyone even know what it is that we're looking for?" one of the men complained.

"'Bio-emergence' my ass." another man muttered.

"I heard they're looking for some new kind of biological weapon, you know, that kind of shit that makes your skin melt off instantly!"

"No way, Sherlock!" another man waved his colleague off.

"Shh, the boss!" each man instantly stopped complaining and got back to the task at hand. No matter how much they didn't want to do it, or how pointless they thought it was, no one wanted to question their superior...He was just too damn creepy! Like Agent Smith with blonde hair and a Zippo.

The Smith look-alike slowly wandered into the no-go zone, lifting up the yellow tape and instantly going for the demolished fence.

"So, one of them did come through...Hm?" he muttered, then something green and blue laying on the ground caught his eye, it was a digimon card. He stooped to pick it up and turned it around. 'Hmm, a Mephistomon...' an odd smirk graced his lips. 'I don't have one of these yet...' he discretely looked around, then placed the card inside of his suit. "Foolish children, leaving all this evidence just laying around for us to find. Oh well, their loss, my gain." he chuckled before walking away, giving the fence on last glance. "Make sure that fence is replaced." 'Since we can't seem to stop these Wild Ones anymore, we might as well perform some kind of public service.'

"Yes sir, Yamaki, sir!" each of the men saluted, but one of them flipped Yamaki the bird before returning to work.

Unfortunately for him, Yamaki just happened to stop to clean his sunglasses and caught the man's reflection in the lenses. "I'll be seeing you in my office, Mr. Anderson." he said before walking away, unaware of the snickers from the "grunts". "There's nothing here, pack it up, we're heading back!" Yamaki ordered.

(With Takato)

The begoggled Tamer and his digimon had been wandering around for close to half an hour trying to find some place to hang out. It was now that Takato realized just how much time he spent at the park. He didn't know any other places to go other than school!

"This is bullshit." he grumbled under his breath.

"What's bullshit?" Guilmon, with his keen hearing, picked up Takato's voice.

"...Nothing you should concern yourself with...ever."

"Okie dokie, Takatomon!"

"I'm not a 'mon!"

Both Guilmon's and BlackGatomon's ears perked and the dinosaur stopped in his tracks.

"What's up?"

"A digimon..." BlackGatomon said dismissively, indicating that not only was it not hostile, but it was also not worth fighting.

"Smells like..." Guilmon sniffed the air. "Terriermon."

"Henry." Takato sighed and looked at BlackGatomon. "Do you mind? I'd like to keep you and SG a secret for as long as possible."

BlackGatomon simply smiled. "Of course, all this wandering is boring anyway, and a Mythbusters marathon is on in, like, an hour. Just use my D-Arc to call me if you need me!"

"Record the marathon for me!" Takato called before the feline teleported back to the bakery.

"Will do! Ciao!" BlackGatomon disappeared in a way not unlike a certain vixen.

And just in time, too, since Henry rounded the corner just as she faded from view.

"Terriermon, she's my sister! No matter how annoying she can be I'm not going to FedEx her to America!" the half-Chinese Tamer swatted his digimon, who was hanging around his neck by his ears, on the head.

"Ow! Momentai!" the lop-eared digimon caught sight of Takato and instantly resumed his stuffed animal act.

"Yeah, like that's gonna work." Takato scoffed.

"Hey, it's you again!" Terriermon used his ears to glide over to Guilmon's head and looked over to Takato. "What's up? Lookin' for someone else to fight?"

Takato smirked. "You offering?"

"No, he's not. You're not." Henry stepped in, plucking his digimon off of Guilmon's head and putting him on his shoulder. "So, what brings you out here? Don't you usually hang out at the park?"

"Are you a stalker, or something?" Takato took a cautious step back.

"What? No! I hang out at the park, too, and I usually see you heading down a different path." Henry explained.

Takato simply nodded. "Dude, you need to lighten up, that was a joke, I know you're not a stalker. But yeah, you're right, I would be there if it weren't for the damned Suits infesting the place."

"See? I'm not the only one that knows you're too uptight!" Terriermon said, but was ignored.

"Suits?"

"Government agents, or some such crap. They were all over the place! I think it has something to do with the digimon, since they were poking around where Guilmon fought Renamon."

"So they're at the other entrances, too." Henry muttered to himself. "I saw them posted at the entrance near my place as well."

"Four black vans with no license plates?" both Henry and Terriermon nodded. "Well damn, ain't that some bull?"

"Bullshit?" Guilmon pitched in, causing Takato to sigh.

"Crap. Don't repeat what I say, okay?"

"Yes, he will only lead you down the path to the Dark Side!" Terriermon said, using his ears to cover his mouth while making his voice deeper.

"Hmph, the Dark Side rocks! We have cookies!" Takato boasted.

"You do?" Terriermon's mouth hung open and he turned to Henry. "Can I?"

"No, you get enough cookies as it is."

"But Henrrryyyyy!" Terriermon whined.

"No! The last thing I need is a hyperactive rabbit running around the apartment! Then who'd believe you were a stuffed animal?"

Terriermon hung his head in defeat. "I hate it when you make a good point."

"Fun and logic don't mix, do they?" Takato chuckled.

Terriermon looked like he was about to cry. "Not at all!" the look of sadness turned to one of panic as he pointed behind Takato. "Men in black, MEN IN BLACK!"

Both Tamers looked to see a long line of black vans coming down the street in their direction.

"Crap!" Takato said before taking Guilmon and diving into another alley and behind a dumpster, prompting Henry and Terriermon to do the same.

"Does this mean that they've left the park?"

"I hope so, then I can show Guilmon his new hiding place."

"You mean that shed at the top of the hill?"

Takato turned to Henry. "You know about that thing?"

"Yeah, Terriermon overheard some kids talking about it being haunted by evil spirits and talked me into checking it out."

"Well?"

"I don't know about you, but I don't consider rabbits evil...Well, maybe one..." Henry chuckled.

Terriermon hmph'ed and turned his head to the side. "Well, if that's the way you feel, maybe I should find another partner."

"Fine, more of Mom's sugarcookies for me."

"Okay, you talked me into it, I'll stay."

Both Henry and Takato laughed at the small digimon's antics before poking their heads out of the alley to see of the coast was clear.

"The Suits are gone. Come on, let's go see if the park is clear yet." Takato stepped out and walked back towards the nearest park entrance, followed by Guilmon, Henry and Terriermon, who resumed his stuffed animal act.

"Hey, what time is it?" Takato suddenly asked. "I forgot my watch."

"4:32, why?"

"Just wanted to know how much longer I can be out here. I've got to be back in by nine."

"Lucky, I've gotta be back by eight!" Henry groaned.

"Yeah, I'm real lucky." Takato snorted. "Hey, look, no vans." he pointed at the park entrance they were coming up on.

"I guess they did leave." Tamers and digimon went into the park, heading for the secluded hilltop that was home to the mysterious concrete shed.

(Four Hours Later)

It seemed as though Takato had taken his Dad's advice and made a new friend in Henry Wong. It wasn't really surprising when you saw how much they had in common besides being Tamers.

Both were avid gamers, both had strange families, both were into martial arts, and both disliked fighting, though Henry was borderline pacifist, regardless of the situation.

For four hours they'd done nothing but talk about whatever came to mind. School, family, the digimon card game, they even got on the subject of girls, where Terriermon took the opportunity to embarrass his Tamer by shouting out the fact that he had a crush on Jeri. Hell, even Rika had come up. Once again, Terriermon took control of this subject, asking both Takato and Henry if they'd ever date the Digimon Queen.

Takato's answer: "Hell yeah! I find her temper oddly...alluring...Does that make me creepy?"

Henry's answer: "...I value my life just a _little_ too much to risk it like that."

Of course, Terriermon had elaborated on this response with: "In other words: She's not Jeri, so no." which resulted on a blushing Henry, a barely breathing Terriermon, a guffawing Takato, and a confused Guilmon.

The blue-haired youth and his digimon had left for their home a bit over a half an hour ago, and it was about time for Takato to start heading back to his home as well.

"Okay, Guilmon, I should get back before Mom throws a fit. You sure you'll be alright out here by yourself?"

Guilmon nodded happily. "Yeah! I like this place, Takatomon, so many different smells!"

Takato smiled. "Just make sure no one sees you. The last thing we need is for those Suits to come back looking for you because someone ran out of the park screaming about a dragon. So just be careful, alright?"

"I'll be careful, Takatomon, I promise!"

"Well then, I'll see you in the morning, and I'll bring you a crapload of bread! Later, Guilmon!" Takato waved to his digimon as he walked down the stone steps.

"Bye-bye, Takatomon!" Guilmon waved.

"Not a 'mon'!" Takato shouted back.

The red dinosaur giggled and took in his new surroundings. "...This place is too small." he decided and walked to the back of the shed. He took an experimental poke at the concrete to make sure he could get through it and found that his claws could pierce through the tough material without much trouble. Flexing said claws, Guilmon started to dig, clearing away massive amounts of dirt and rock.

(At The Bakery, Twenty Minutes Later)

Takato had booked it back to his home, just making it back just before nine o' clock.

"You're cutting it awfully close, don't you think, son?" Takehiro called from the kitchen, where he sat at the dinner table reading a newspaper while Mie put the finishing touches on dinner.

"But I'm just in time for dinner, right?" it was a rhetorical question, since he could easily smell what his mother was cooking. "Beef stir fry, awesome!" one of his favorite meals.

"Yeah, yeah, just go wash your hands and get ready for dinner." Takehiro chuckled.

Takato ran upstairs after a quick "Hello" to Lillymon, BlackGatomon, and Calumon, who he noticed had a large band-aid on his head. He came back down minutes later in his sleepwear, all but leaping down the stairs.

As soon as he entered the dining area, his mother was quick to notice something was "off" about him. Within seconds, she saw exactly what it was.

"Is there something you forgot to tell us, young man?" Mie asked, now in full-on "Mom Mode".

Takato simply rose an eyebrow, genuinely confused about what she was talking about. Understanding came when she pointed at her own right arm and gave him a look that made him want to confess to things he'd only thought of doing.

"O-Oh, this...I didn't get this done, Mom, it just...appeared the same night Guilmon and LadyDevimon came into our world."

Mie looked at her son for a few seconds, seemingly looking into his very soul to see if he was telling the truth. Eventually, she was satisfied with his answer and turned away from Takato. Takehiro seemed to not care at all. In fact, once his wife turned her back, he gave Takato a quick thumbs-up, then went back to his reading.

Takato breathed a small sigh of relief. He had completely forgotten about the tattoo, but perhaps that was for the best. He might've tried to hide it if he had remembered, and that would've the inevitable reveal a whole lot worse. But with all the things they'd seen in the past few months, Takato's parents had become very understanding of situations like this, and usually didn't make a big deal out of it unless things starting exploding.

"Oh, speaking of Guilmon, where is he?" Mie asked as she set out the plates.

"Oh, he's staying at that old shed in the park."

"The 'haunted' one at the top of the hill?" Takehiro rose an eyebrow, that place always gave him the creeps, even though he didn't believe it was really haunted.

"Yeah, that's the one. I knew he wouldn't like being cooped up in here all the time."

"Aw, well that's too bad, I made extra just for him." Mie held out a rather large bowl full of stir fry, to which Takato sweatdropped.

"Don't worry about it, I can take it to him." BlackGatomon volunteered.

"You know where it is?" Takato cocked his head to the side a bit.

The Champion gave her Tamer a look that said, "What do you think?". "I'd been watching you for a week before I came here, and you've been there twice in that time, so I know exactly where it is. Be back in a second!" she took the bowl from Mie then disappeared with it, returning a minute later, snickering.

"What's so funny?" Takato asked, feeling a bit uneasy at the way she was looking at him while laughing.

"Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it, it's time to eat!" BlackGatomon took her seat at the table next to Takato.

The teen eyed her suspiciously. "Riiiiight..." 'Screw it, stir fry!' his mind made up, Takato dug in with the rest of the extended family.

(Afternoon The Next Day)

After Takato had completely freaked at what Guilmon had done to the shed, he let Guilmon devour the day-old bread at a terrifying rate before they headed out.

We now find Takato and Guilmon, once again, walking down the street without a care in the world. The young Tamer was really starting to question the intelligence of the general public. He said Guilmon was a guy in a suit, and nobody thought anything about it.

"Seriously, how gullible can people be?" Takato stopped walking when he saw Guilmon suddenly become alert. "What, do you know the answer?" the dinosaur growled and shot off like a bat out of hell. "Hey!" Takato shouted before running off after his digimon.

He eventually caught up to Guilmon, then passed him as they headed into one of the sublevels of a parking garage. "I'm beating you!" when this turned into a competition, Takato didn't know, and Guilmon wasn't paying attention.

"Rika, the prey approaches." Renamon phased into view next to her Tamer as they waited for their next victims to arrive.

"Good. They won't get away this time, now that there's no one to save them." Rika seemed to have forgotten the outcome of their last battle: Renamon on her back and about to eat a fully charged Pyro Sphere.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the digimon that barreled into view first, it was its Tamer, moving at a quite an impressive clip before stopping and panting as his digimon stopped just ahead of him.

"I...win...Now...why...were we...running?" Takato slowed his breathing until it was at the normal rate.

Guilmon just growled and continued to look straight ahead.

"Guilmon?" Takato followed his line of sight and saw Renamon standing across from them, her Tamer leaning on one of the pillars near the bipedal fox. "Ah hell, you again?"

"Can't get anything past you, can I, _boy_." sneered Rika, as condescending as ever. "Are you ready to fight for real this time? Is your little dinosaur out of diapers yet?"

"Well, I see you've lost whatever brain cells you had before, otherwise you'd remember how our last battle ended. Renamon, do you remember?" Takato grinned as he saw the digimon's fur bristle. "I think you do, so why don't you refresh your Tamer's memory? No? Well then, allow us to provide a little _déjà vu_. Guilmon, fun time." Takato unclipped his D-Arc from his belt, which was normally hidden by his shirt, and took out a single card. "Digi-modify! Speed, activate!"

Guilmon became a red blur as the card took effect, catching Renamon completely off guard and nailing her in the chest with his glowing right arm.

"Rock Breaker!" the attack send the kitsune flying right into the side of a car, heavily denting the doors and breaking the windows.

"And the first hit of round two goes to Guilmon!" Takato grinned, spinning his D-Arc on his finger just to annoy Rika. "Your move, Sunshine."

Rika glared fiercely, subconsciously hoping to make the opposing Tamer burst into flames. No such luck, so she pulled out a card instead.

"You're getting way too sloppy, Renamon!" she then hissed to Takato, "You're gonna regret that cockiness."

"Right back at'cha, Queenie!"

Rika's eye twitched violently. "No one...calls me _that_..." she snarled.

"Well, I just did. And now I'm curious to see what you're gonna do about it. Come on, Queen of the Pineapples, I'm givin' ya' a free hit here! Make your move so Guilmon can mop the floor with the Yellow Ranger over there!" Takato looked down and stepped on a roach while grimacing. "And what a dirty floor it is."

Rika was nearly at the point of screaming in frustration, but restrained herself, if barely, in order to give the command to her digimon. "Renamon,-!"

"Walk all over him!" Takato finished, mimicking Rika's voice. Just like the last time he did it, he winced. "Damn, still can't make that sound good!"

This time Rika did scream. "Digi-modify! Garurumon, activate!"

Renamon instantly hopped to her feet and into the air, using her hands to channel the energy for her new attack. "Howling Blaster!" she launched a large beam freezing energy at her foe.

Guilmon didn't bother to dodge and was swept away by the attack and smashed into a pillar.

"Not so cocky now, are you?" Rika smirked, thinking that it was all but won.

Takato simply shrugged. "Nope, just bored." he yawned to punctuate his statement. "I guess it's our turn again. Say, Guilmon, you wanna finish this now, or play around a bit more?"

Guilmon growled and rose to his feet without any trouble whatsoever, seemingly unaffected by the powerful attack.

"I think he still wants to play. Oh well, who am I to make him end his little game? But could we hurry this up? I may not have all that much lined up for today, but just about anything's better than being down here with you freezing up the place with ice attacks and that glacier you call a personality."

Rika was shaking with rage now. This little...Punk dared to insult her? She insulted people, and she was not about to be beaten at her own game, in any sense.

"Renamon..."

"Yes, Rika?"

"...I want you to take him down _slowly_...Then we're gonna teach this little boy a _lesson_..." she developed another tick mark when she heard Takato snort.

"What did you have in mind?"

"...I haven't decided yet...It's a tough choice between running him up the flagpole at school by his underwear, or tying him up and leaving him in the bathroom at school nearly naked." mind you she went to an all-girls school, so seeing a boy there was a big deal by itself, but if said boy was hanging from a flagpole or hogtied in a bathroom stall, well...Moving to a different country and changing your name might not be enough to rid yourself of the shame.

Takato recoiled. "Hey, yo, hold up, we just met and you already want to take my clothes off? Jeez, kiss me first, baby!"

"...How about we run him up the flagpole, take pictures, stick them all over his body, then put him in the bathroom?" Renamon suggested. This boy was even getting under her skin!

"I like the way you think, Renamon!" Rika smirked.

Takato just grinned. "Oh, kinky." this was just too much fun!

XXXX

Not much action in this chapter, but I'm trying to give everyone a grasp of the changes I've made to Takato's character, so this chapter was all about him. I won't do this for the other characters, since I haven't changed them that much at all. This is the kind of thing I like to do with my fanfics, I'll change only a few characters and leave everyone else basically the same, then I just think of how they'd act when a certain character did something.

Like what would Henry say of Takato suddenly smashed the window of a car, unlocked the door, then hotwired the thing? What would Terriermon say? What would Rika do if he suddenly did that in the middle of their parking garage battle? I haven't changed them at all, and they're completely in-character. This is just the way I think those characters would react to Takato doing something stupid or completely random.

And I've also revealed that Rika isn't the only Tamer with father issues, though Takato's are decidedly more severe.

Not much else to say, so, as usual, leave any questions you have about the fic in your reviews or PMs.

(1): I'm using American currency because I really don't feel like converting, and it makes everything go faster.

(Edit - 6/13/09: This has been fixed. I was bored and had no inspiration to do anything, so I decided to do some editing for my stories. This includes conversion to proper currency.)

(2): In case you were wondering, Takato is 5' 4", a bit tall for his age, but that actually seems to be the average for 13-15 year old males where I live. Then again, there's the whole Japanese/American height differential to consider...

(3): Takato's biological father and stepfather trained with each other under the same teacher, so Takehiro knows his fighting style well enough to at least teach Takato the basics.

(4): This is actually a basic move in kickboxing, but it's still deadly when you catch the opponent off guard. Main drawback is that it's easily avoided and countered if the opponent can react fast enough.

(5): I worked at a bakery for two months, and trust me, it was loud as hell. You've got shit beeping all the time, people yelling, machines making weird buzzing noises that make you think they'll explode at any second, and the smoke alarms...Don't fucking get me started on the smoke alarms. Someone burns one loaf of bread and you'll be hearing about it for the next half hour.

Well, that's it, so, until next time...

Jason Out!


	5. Guns Blazing

Well damn. That's all I can really say. It's been over three months since I updated this thing, but I've had a lot of crap on my plate lately, and a LOT of distractions.

The Idea Factory has gone into overdrive again, and it's just getting crazy. Certain ideas won't leave my head until I've written them out, so I've got about seven prototype stories lined up, but they'll probably never see the light of day, so yeah. Though I am thinking of posting my prototype for Love Hina(probably one of the funniest animes I've ever seen, and many of the fanfics for it are even more hilarious), but it's still in the "rough draft" stage.

Anyway, the next chapter of Tamer of the Night is also in the works, but I'm warning you now, Black Flames is going painfully slow. It's really erratic, too. Sometimes I'll spend two hours and only come up with three paragraphs, and other times I'll come up with an entire page-worth of writing in fifteen minutes. I know exactly what I want for the next chapter, I'm just stressing over proper execution right now.

Let's see...Um...I guess there's nothing else to say, so...

Enjoy chapter five of Tamer of the Hazard!

XXXX

"Renamon..." Rika let her growled command hang, knowing Renamon needed no encouragement.

The kitsune disappeared, moving at speeds Guilmon couldn't hope to keep up with. But he could still get a vague picture of her movements from the feeling of the shifting wind currents caused by the vixen's speed as she all but flew through the air.

But this still didn't give the dinosaurian digimon any real chance of detecting Renamon until she slowed down in order to take an accurate shot at him.

"Psst, over here." Guilmon's head whipped around to his left, only to be wrenched to the right from a vicious punch.

Still reeling from the attack, Guilmon couldn't even hope to avoid the powerful kick to the side of his head. This continued on for what seemed like hours, though the actual timeframe was little more than a single minute. During this time, Renamon proved just how effective the stick-and-move tactic could be, though she wasn't really going for damage.

She was going to beat the male Tamer at his own game. Renamon pulled her attacks in order to cause more annoyance than pain, steadily adding more fuel to the fire that was Guilmon's anger. She wanted him to be absolutely furious, to the point where anything his Tamer said would be ignored in favor of a single-minded obsession with her destruction. This way, his attacks would be less accurate and he would wear himself out much faster, allowing her to go in for the kill at her leisure.

She was getting close to her objective, if the red digimon's animalistic snarling was anything to go by.

'That's right, come and get me.' Renamon thought with an internal smirk as she led her opponent further into the parking garage, making him waste his energy on cars and concrete pillars.

"Pyro Sphere!" Guilmon let another burning red ball fly, growling as it missed its mark, just like the last seven before it.

"Hm, only off by four feet this time." Renamon observed nonchalantly.

Takato sighed and shook his head as he followed his digimon deeper into the parking garage.

"I made him to be better than Agumon...So why, oh why, did I give him the same basic attack?"(1) he muttered under his breath. He remembered more than a few occasions that, while watching reruns of Digimon Adventure, he wondered why there were so many fireball-type attacks, especially amongst Rookies. 'Should've given him that energy beam attack I was thinking of.' it was far too late for that. In fact, he'd have to wait until WarGrowlmon made his debut before he saw any beams come out of his partner. "Unless..." he started laughing at his own stupidity.

This drew an eyebrow raise out of Rika, who was silently walking far to the left and a few paces behind Takato, also following the fighting digimon.

"Either you've had some kind of epiphany, or you've finally flipped your lid..." Rika frowned at the lack of response, not counting the snickering coming from the boy. "And me without a straitjacket."

That comment did draw a retort out of the male Tamer. "What is it with you and tying me up? You must really want to have your way with me, huh?" pegging her as someone who hated narcissists, Takato proceeded to check himself out in the side mirror of a car. "Can't say I blame you." he started messing with his hair. "Say, do you think I'd look good with spiky hair?" he suddenly stopped dead and slowly turned to look at Rika, or, more accurately, her hair. "Why the hell am I asking _you_ about hairstyles? You'd have me looking like a fruit in more ways than one." turning back to the mirror, he struggled to hold back a snicker at the expression on the girl's face. 'Someone's pissed.' he mentally chuckled.

'...He needs to die...I have to kill him.' Rika's inner-self said calmly, in sharp contrast with what she was saying. 'Get a tire iron from one of these wrecked cars, crack him over the head with it, and have Renamon get rid of the body and the weapon after she loads Dino-boy's data...Simple.' what she wasn't aware of was the fact that she was muttering her thoughts loud enough for Takato to hear.

"...You're sitting here, discussing my future murder with yourself, yet you call me crazy?" Rika was thrust back into reality as Takato walked away from her, humming the Twilight Zone theme.

Rika didn't reply, opting to check demolished cars for anything that could be used to bludgeon someone into unconsciousness. Yeah, that's what she'd do. She'd knock him out and lock him in a nice, dark basement somewhere. She'd wait until the paranoia and isolation had taken its toll on him, leaving him a babbling wreck, then she'd come in and the real fun would begin...Nothing perverted, just a lot of pain...That's all.

'Yeah, that's all...I gotta stop watching those "Saw" movies.' Rika thought, then cursed as another car turned up empty.

"Hey, Queen Pineapple, pay attention!" Takato called with a smirk. "You just might learn something." he slashed the card through his D-Arc, not bothering to call out the name. That would ruin the surprise, and he wanted to see the look on Rika's face. It was sure to be priceless.

Guilmon, who was just about to launch another Pyro Sphere, felt another kind of heat building in the back of his throat. Growling softly, allowing the orange glow from the charging attack to be seen through his teeth, Guilmon's eyes shined red for a split second before he unleashed a large beam of pure, burning energy from his mouth.

Caught completely off guard, Renamon just barely avoided the attack, though she did suffer some singed fur. But there was no time to dwell on the potential bald patch on her thigh, the dinosaur still had his beam going and it was closing on her at an alarming rate, melting everything it made contact with.

Even with the new attack, Guilmon was still too slow to react to Renamon's movements in time, and he quickly lost sight of her again. This led to him firing off another stream of energy everytime he saw the tell-tale yellow blur.

"Hey! Watch where you're aiming that thing!" Takato shouted as a stray orange ray flew over his head. 'Maybe that wasn't such a good idea...' "Guilmon, calm down so you can aim properly!" Guilmon didn't comply with the order and kept blasting away.

"What kind of Tamer are you? You can't even control a digimon as weak as this little Petmon?" Rika snorted before being tackled to the ground by the other Tamer just as one of the heat beams hit the pillar she had been leaning on. To anyone watching, the words "hot knife" and "butter" would spring to mind. Takato, who had spun his body around as he tackled Rika so he would hit the ground and absorb the impact, rolled over to avoid the molten concrete and metal from the reinforcement bars within the pillar. This resulted in them being in an even more compromising position than before, but only Rika seemed to take notice of this, judging from the light blush her cheeks now sported.

"Well, Queenie, that 'Petmon' nearly took your head off, so show a little respect." Takato stood up and looked at the girl, who was still on the ground, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. "I'd appreciate it if you'd shut your trap and let me get Guilmon back under control before he kills us all!" he vaulted over the hood of a Honda Civic to follow his digimon.

Meanwhile, Guilmon didn't seem to notice that he'd nearly killed someone, or, if he did, just didn't care. Renamon was his one and only focus, everything else was put on the backburner.

Unleashing one last beam, which missed, of course, Guilmon appeared to calm down. He slowed his pace to a light jog, then a calm gait, then he stopped completely and slowly surveyed his surroundings. The haze of rage that had clouded his mind now somewhat lifted, he could finally think of a battle plan. Though it may have been primitive and simple, it was a plan nonetheless.

He saw a flash of yellow to his right and turned his attention to it, but didn't attack, instead choosing to observe the direction in which the vixen was moving. The cogs within his mind slowly turning as the plan came together, Guilmon let a small, uncharacteristic smirk grace his muzzle. Another flash of yellow. This time, Guilmon did attack, using the last bit of power given to him by his Tamer's Cyclomon card and launching that devastating Hyper Heat beam. But, this time around, Guilmon didn't aim at Renamon, he aimed ahead of her.(2)

The bipedal fox's eyes widened in horror as she saw the beam getting closer and closer with each passing nanosecond. She couldn't avoid it, she was moving too fast and it was too close. She cried out as searing pain erupted from her side and the burning ray knocked her right out of the air and onto the hood of an old pick-up truck, which caved in under the force of her painful landing.

With the wind driven from her lungs and her body wracked with pain, Renamon was hard-pressed to even move, let alone get up and escape from her opponent's assault.

'Dammit!' Renamon mentally growled. 'I got careless and fell into a pattern that even this simpleton could figure out. That's one mistake I'll never make again.' she vowed, then heaved when Guilmon's foot came crashing down on her chest.

With a low growl, Guilmon pressed down with his entire weight, causing Renamon to gasp for air and the truck to groan in protest of the uncalled-for abuse.

"Guilmon!" Takato shouted, jumping onto the roof of a rather expensive-looking red BMW. 'Well, this looks familiar.' he mentally grumbled, remembering how the last battle had ended.

"Renamon!" Rika shouted as she rounded the corner. In a panic, she pulled her cards from their protective pouch on her belt, but couldn't keep a firm hold on them with her trembling hand, resulting in them falling to the ground and scattering.(3)

"Terriermon!" came a third voice, though it didn't belong to a Tamer.

"What's going on here?" it was Henry, who has followed his digimon's directions when the lop-eared dog heard a series of explosions.

"Something that doesn't concern you!" while it may have come off as rude, Takato was trying to tell Henry to take his digimon and leave, before Guilmon turned his sights on them. While he didn't register Terriermon as an enemy under normal circumstances, battle-highs do strange things to humans and digimon alike.

"When you're down here blowing up cars, it kinda concerns everyone!" Terriermon giggled and started to run towards the fighting digimon.

"Where are you going?" Henry called out, trying to get his partner to stop.

"Momentai, Henry! Just because I'm not ten feet tall doesn't mean I can't hold my own!" the Rookie continued on, undeterred.

Guilmon, who had been distracted by the appearance of another digimon, turned back to his opponent/prey, only to be knocked for a loop by a hard right hook and sent flying via a violent push from Renamon's powerful legs.

Leaping into the air, Renamon crossed her arms in front of her body in the telltale beginning pose for her strongest attack. A glowing ball of energy appeared before her, then broke apart into hundreds of small, razor-sharp crystal shards.

"Diamond St-!" a speck of white just behind Guilmon's prone form caught Renamon's eye and she gasped. "Get back!" it was too late, she couldn't cancel the attack, and the shards flew forward, seemingly much faster than they normally were.

Terriermon, who had taken to looking at his reflection in a polished hubcap and making faces, turned around just in time to see the lethal shards coming right at him.

"Terriermon! NO!" Henry screamed and tried to dash forward to save his partner, but was held back by Takato, who was quite surprised by just how much he had to struggle to keep the blue-haired boy from racing to his doom.

"Uh-oh..." he closed his eyes and used his ears to shield his head, even though he knew it was pointless. 'So, this is how it ends? I don't even get a final one-liner? Goodbye, world. Goodbye, Henry...' that last thought awakened something within the small digimon, something unwilling to accept defeat so easily.

A blinding light erupted from the unfortunate digimon, forcing all watching to turn away. This resulted in them missing the equally intense light coming from Henry's left vest pocket.

"Terriermon digivolve to..." with one final intense flash, the pint-sized Rookie was no more, in his place was a much, much larger Champion. "Gargomon!" and he was more than ready for a fight.

Henry finally managed to wriggle out of Takato's grasp and stared at his partner with a mix of awe and terror. "T-Terriermon?" he whispered, his voice cracking as a lump formed in his throat and his eyes stung with the beginnings of tears. He knew what was going to happen now, it had happened before, but that didn't make it any less frightening.

The huge, jean-wearing rabbit giggled giddily, a disarmingly innocent sound...when it came from a child. It became more than a little creepy when it came from a six-foot tall anthropomorphic animal. It became downright terrifying when said animal had gatling guns for hands, and had one of them trained on you.

Luckily for Renamon, she wasn't easily creeped out or scared. But, she had to admit, the prospect of being "lit up like a christmas tree", as Rika would probably put it, didn't sound at all appealing. So, to avoid such a fate, Renamon could only do one thing, since she had lost far too much strength battling Guilmon to take on a fresh Champion. And that one thing was...RUN LIKE HELL!

As soon as Renamon made even the slightest hint of movement, Gargomon let loose with a volley of green energy bullets. But the kitsune proved to still possess superior speed, resulting in the Nissan behind her being turned into scrap metal.

Still giggling gleefully, Gargomon opened up with both of his guns, quite enjoying the challenge of a moving target. The trigger-happy rabbit was then blindsided by a red blur and smashed into the wall to his right.

"Way to go, Guilmon!" Takato cheered, hoping that the blow had knocked some since into both digimon.

When the dust cleared, Guilmon was still standing, though he looked to be wobbling a little, and Gargomon was shaking his head to fend off what may have been a minor concussion.

Renamon slowed and eventually stopped when she felt the threat had passed, hoping, like Takato, that the force of their impact rattled their brains enough for them to function properly.

'If they ever did in the first place.' chuckling inwardly at her little joke, Renamon turned to her Tamer, whom, she noticed, looked genuinely terrified for the first time in quite a while. "Rika, are you al-!" Renamon was cutoff by a large fireball slamming into her side and exploding, sending her flying through the windshield of a mini-van.

"Renamon!" Rika dashed off before anyone could stop her, unlocking the door to the vehicle through the broken window and wrenching the door open to get at her partner. "Renamon? Wake up..." there was no response from the unconscious Rookie. "Renamon? Please, speak to me..." again, nothing. A sudden wave of anger washed over the girl. "Renamon, I ORDER you to get up!" of course, this accomplished nothing. Then came the sadness. "Please, get up...Renamon, don't leave me."

"...R-Rika?" Renamon opened her eye just a fraction, enough to see the blurry image of her tamer, though it was more of a peach-colored blob with two purple dots on it and another blob, a dark orange one, at the top.

"Renamon!" before she even knew what she was doing, Rika captured her digimon in a bone-crushing hug.

The fox's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then she was overtaken by a series of violent coughs and slipped into unconsciousness once again.

Immediately relinquishing Renamon, fearing that she had somehow harmed her, Rika let her partner lay back down on the seats of the van. When she saw that Renamon was still breathing, she let a small smile grace her features, which turned to a frown as she noticed the red liquid that was leaking from the corner of the digimon's mouth.

"There it is again..." slowly, almost mechanically, Rika reached for her shoulder and tugged on the shirt to bring it into view. Sure enough, it was stained with small patches of fresh blood.(4)

"Bunny Pummel!" Rika directed her attention to the owner of the voice and winced from the sharp crack that resonated throughout the garage as Gargomon's left gatling hand smashed into the side of Guilmon's head and sent him tumbling across the ground.

As she watched the red dinosaur roll, she was suddenly overcome with a feeling of extreme dread. Turning her head just a little, she spied the source of it. Gargomon was looking at her, a manic gleam in his eyes, and slowly leveling his right gun on her.

Takato, who'd dashed to his partner's side, despite Henry calling to him to stay back, growled lowly and glared at Gargomon.

'What's he aiming at now?' turning his head, Takato's eyes widened as he saw Rika sitting in the back of a minivan, looking for all the world like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding truck. "You idiot, get down!" He suddenly found himself running, but not towards Rika, oh no, he was going full-tilt towards Gargomon.(5)

Henry, too stunned to even yell at his friend, could only watch on in horror, visions of Takato being torn to bloody ribbons by Gargomon's bullets flashing before his mind's eye.

Maybe it was Gargomon's single-minded focus, or maybe it was the near inhuman speed Takato was exhibiting, maybe it was a combination of the two factors. Or maybe it was just sheer luck. But, for one reason or another, Gargomon never saw Takato coming, and was completely unprepared for the leg sweep.

"Whoa!" the Champion yelped and fell onto his back.

Not even stopping to contemplate just how stupid that move was, Takato ran towards the wrecked minivan and grabbed a hold of both Rika and her unconscious partner.

"You owe me two now." he said to the girl, then jerked both females out of the vehicle before green energy bullets ripped through it, reducing it to a pile of metal resembling a sponge in seconds. "Get behind that SUV!" Takato pointed at the Mitsubishi Pajero two parking spots to his left. "Go!" he shouted when Rika didn't move.

Letting out an uncharacteristic "eep", Rika silently dragged her partner around to the back of the SUV, surprised by how light the fox was. 'Must be why she can move so fast.' she reasoned, then frowned. 'How can something so light hit so hard?' the countless digimon Renamon had taken out in their time together had probably thought the same thing at one point before their destruction.

Giggling again, Gargomon followed the female Tamer and her digimon, his left gunhand trained on them. He caught sight of something shiny heading towards him and instinctively shot at it, knocking it out of the air and revealing it to be a hubcap that had dislodged and rolled across the ground from the pick-up that Renamon and Guilmon had nearly crushed.

"Nice aim." was all Takato said before dashing off to the side as Gargomon opened fire on him. Judging from the way the bullets were trailing behind him, it seemed that the Champion was just toying with him, not actually trying to kill him, but he wasn't about to slow down and see if the bullets stopped before he was turned into hamburger meat.

"TERRIERMON!" Henry screamed, tears flowing down his cheeks, hardly believing that his partner not only fired on a human being, but at their only friend as well.

Gargomon suddenly stopped firing and the gleam in his eyes vanished. He shook his head a little and turned to his Tamer.

"Henry? What happened?" the Champion looked around the parking garage and took note of the bullet holes that riddled nearly every surface. "I did all this?" he whispered to himself, looking at his gatling hands in horror and more than a little disgust. "Henry...I-!"

Gargomon was cutoff by a call of "Pyro Sphere" and a large fireball slamming into his side and lifting him off of his feet before exploding and sending him crashing onto the hood of one of the few undamaged cars.

There was another bright flash and Gargomon was Terriermon once again.

"Ugh..." the small Rookie groaned in pain. "Did anyone get the number of that bus?" he tried to stand, but ended up tumbling off of the car and falling to the floor. "...I'm okay..." he looked up, and immediately wished he hadn't. "Probably not for much longer, though." he was right, if Guilmon's menacing glare and snarling visage was any indication.

Rika, who had poked her head out from behind the SUV to see if she had anything else after her head, frowned as her conscience conflicted with her personality.

'Gunbunny just tried to kill me!...So why do I feel like I need to help him?' she sighed, even if she wanted to help, she was in no position to do so.

"Guilmon, that's enough! You win, it's over, time to go home." Takato stood in front of his digimon, blocking his path.

The dinosaur seemed slow down a bit, but showed no other signs of acknowledging his Tamer.

"Guilmon?" Takato tried a softer tone, hoping that kindness would bring his friend back from the "dark side". 'Well, it works in the movies.' yes, a lot of things have some kind of beneficial effect in movies, when, in reality, they don't do squat. This, like shooting a vehicle's gas tank to make it explode, was one of the things that didn't work at all.(6)

If anything, it looked like it made Guilmon speed up! The low, rumbling growl, accompanied by an ominous red glow within the Rookie's mouth, clinched it. Guilmon had no intention of halting his advance. The target couldn't be allowed to escape, afterall.

'Dammit, Guilmon, I understand that you're new to the whole fighting thing, but this is just too much.' a glance at Henry's horrified face was more than enough to make Takato react. "Guilmon!" he roared, his voice booming through the garage, seeming to come from every direction at once from the echo.

The red dinosaur stopped dead in his tracks and blinked as his eyes returned to normal.

"Takato? What happened? Why do you look so mad?" he was genuinely confused. He didn't remember wreaking absolute havoc and causing millions of yen in property damage.(7)

"Don't give me that!" Takato said, wincing along with Guilmon at the harsh tone. "I can see now that we've got a long way to go before we can battle effectively. I suppose it's mostly my fault for not being able to get you back on track quick enough, but you need to learn how to control yourself. You going berserk like that almost got us killed, and I'll be damned if this turns into a regular thing! You nearly killed Rika with your indiscriminate attacks and you almost destroyed one of our friends. Next time I give you directions in battle, you need to listen to me, otherwise we might not be so lucky. Do you understand me?"

Guilmon's wing-like ears drooped almost like Terriermon's and he hung his head, seeming to nearly shrink into himself. "I'm sorry, Takato, I didn't mean to hurt anyone." even if he didn't remember what he'd done, it had to have been horrible for his Tamer to be this angry with him.

Kneeling in front of his partner, Takato laid his hand on Guilmon's head. "Hurting someone in a fight is unavoidable, you just have to make sure you only hurt the one you're fighting. Remember that next time."

Guilmon nodded slowly, a few tears sliding down the sides of his face. "Okay, Takatomon, I'll remember."

Takato smiled and gave the digimon a hug. "I'm not a 'mon." he turned his gaze to Rika, who seemed to be trying to play it cool, like she hadn't just avoided death twice in the span of less than ten minutes. "As for you..." he released Guilmon and glared right at the girl, locking eyes with her. "You come after us again, and you will go home alone. This isn't a threat..." Takato's eyes narrowed, as if daring Rika to turn away from him. "It's a _promise_." turning on his heel, Takato walked off, Guilmon trailing behind him.

"Takato..." Henry called out softly, cradling the now unconscious Terriermon in his arms.

Takato stopped and looked at his friend, frowning. "You're damn lucky you're a friend, otherwise I'd punch you in the face for creating this fiasco." he continued on, not giving Henry a chance to respond. He had too much on his mind right now, and might just hit the blue-haired boy if he stuck around any longer. "You guys might want to get outta dodge, and quick. I highly doubt no one heard all this crap, and it's only a matter of time before everyone sees the smoke." he picked up his pace a bit as he said this.

Henry, realizing that Takato was right, moved to follow him out of the parking garage, but stopped as he remembered the third party involved in this disaster.

"Hey, Rika, wasn't it? Is your Renamon...alright?" he felt more than a little uncomfortable talking to the girl whom his digimon partner nearly killed, but it wasn't in him to just leave someone wounded, human or digimon, behind without at least asking if they were okay.

Snapping out of her semi-trance, Rika turned her attention to the boy in the lifejacket. "She's fine." she looked back and saw that Renamon had disappeared. 'Yeah, she's fine.' she also noticed that the blood on her shirt was gone as well. 'It must be all the stress...It's making me see things.' she concluded before walking off in the same direction as the gogglehead.

Henry simply looked on and sighed before walking after her.

"Not very sociable, is she?" came the near inaudible joke from the battered Terriermon.

Henry couldn't help but laugh. Even in this sorry state, his partner still wouldn't stop with the jokes.

"Terriermon." the half-Chinese Tamer reprimanded, though he wasn't serious at all.

"Momentai...Henry, I hear sirens." Terriermon's ears perked up slightly.

Henry nodded and increased his pace to a light jog, hoping that he wouldn't be caught just for being the last one out.

'I come here with the best of intentions, and end up making things worse...The only way this can be more ironic is for me to be blamed for all this as well.' it was now that Henry realized Takato was probably right, he should just mind his own business from now on. Interfering was quickly becoming much more trouble than it was worth. 'Fighting period is always more trouble than it's worth.' it was true, at least in his mind, as the cost of conflict always seemed to dwarf the reward for the winner.

(Twenty Minutes Later)

"Slow down! I'm still hurt, you know!" Terriermon complained as his Tamer continued to fly down the park paths, making sharp turns and heading down a different path every few seconds.

"Can't...slow down..." Henry panted. "Police...still...following!" he suddenly spied a flight of stone steps to his side and went for them, his martial arts training allowing him to clear three or four steps at a time without problem.

"Um...Henry?" Terriermon rubbed the side of his head sheepishly. "I...sorta have a confession to make...There were never any cops, I was just messing with you...You know, a prank?" Terriermon was almost flung from his Tamer's shoulder when he suddenly slammed on the breaks and stopped dead. "I'm sorry."

"Terriermon..." Henry's voice soft tone, to Terriermon's ears, was the very definition of the calm before the storm.

"Momentai?" the Rookie ventured.

"..." Henry just slowly turned his head towards his digimon.

"Don't hurt me!" with that, Terriermon jumped off of Henry's shoulder and ran into a bush, hoping it would at least slow his partner down should he decide to give chase. Chancing a look back, Terriermon saw Henry leap clear over the bush, looking amazingly calm, despite what he was planning to do to his digimon once he caught him.(8)

It was at this point that Takato, who was sitting on the ground next to the entrance of Guilmon's shed, was broken from his musings by a screaming Terriermon running by him much faster than his stubby little legs should have been able to carry him. Henry showed up soon after, running at full-steam before coming to a slow stop just in front of the shed, apparently not noticing Takato at all.

"...Be vewy, vewy quiet. He's hunting wabbits." Takato used the classic line from one of his favorite western cartoon characters, Elmer Fudd. He even had that semi-retarded laugh down pat.

"...Which way did he go, Takato? Which way did he go?" Henry also enjoyed the western cartoons. Even if some of them were over fifty years old, they were still hilarious.(9)

"He went thataway!" Takato pointed to the left and the right all at once.

After an odd pause, both boys broke down into fits of laughter.

"Is it safe to come out yet?" Terriermon poked his head out from a bush off to the side of the shed. He yelped when he was instantly plucked from the bush and trapped in a bearhug by Henry.

"I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him, and love him!" even though it was completely idiotic, Henry had to admit that messing with his digimon like this was fun.(10)

"Gyah!" Terriermon screamed overdramatically when Henry started petting his head. "Get him offa me!" he looked towards Takato, but he looked like his was about to pass out from laughing so hard. "Guilmon, help!"

"Don't...bother...he's...dead to...the world!" Takato managed to get out in between laughs. Exhaustion had finally taken its toll on Guilmon by the time they reached the shed and he'd just collapsed on the floor of the shed, nearly falling on Takato.

"Put me down, put me down!" Terriermon tried to wriggled from his Tamer's grip, but had little success. "I don't wanna be called 'George'!"

Henry suddenly adopted a downright evil grin. "Would you prefer 'Pwincess Pwettypants'?"

"George is an awesome name." both Tamers shared a laugh at that.

"So, you got out before the cops came." it was more of a statement than a question, as Henry wouldn't be there if he had been caught by the police.

"Yeah, they got to the garage right when I turned the corner. I didn't know if they saw me or not, but Terriermon decided to play a little joke on me and told me they were right on my tail." Henry shot his digimon a dirty look, causing him to ran behind Takato, who sweatdropped.

"So...You ran the entire way here?" Takato couldn't help but chuckle. "Good one." he turned to Terriermon.

"Don't encourage him." Henry said as he plopped down beside Takato. His anger long forgotten and adrenaline having run out, his fatigue finally caught up to him and his legs felt like they were about to fall off.

"Oh, but I should." Takato smirked.

"And why's that?" Henry looked at his friend while leaning on the outer wall of the shed.

"You're too uptight and, quite frankly, boring. He's the counterbalance."

Terriermon appeared on Takato's shoulder. "Thank you! I've been trying to tell him that all along!"

Henry shook his head and let out a small chuckle. "Double-teamed by my own friends. Ow! Hey, what was that for?" the blue-haired boy rubbed the back of his head where Takato had smacked him.

"That was for interfering in yet another fight. What, you didn't think I'd let you off the hook that easily, did you?" Takato rose an eyebrow. "I'm not gonna lie and say I had everything under control, but I was getting there. That's also payback for the last two times." as he said, if Henry had been anyone other than Takato's friend, he would have been laid out a while ago. "But you aren't the only one to blame for that disaster. I accept responsibility for Guilmon's actions, as I failed to get him to calm down. But the one who I should be smacking is Pineapplehead." Henry didn't miss it when Takato visibly flinched after the words left his mouth. "No, I don't hit girls...I don't even think it's possible for me to do it." he knew exactly why he'd never raise his hand to a member of the opposite sex, but that was on a need-to-know basis, and, to be blunt, Henry didn't need to know.

"What if said girl could possibly beat the crap out of you?" Henry ventured, still rubbing the back of his head a bit. If that little smack stung this much, he didn't even want to know what a full-force punch was like.(11)

Takato's eyes widened at that. "Rika? Beat me?" he burst into laughter. "That's a good one! Yeah, she looks and acts like some badass tomboy, but that's all it is; an act. Besides, I'm sure you could tell that she's no martial artist."

"How can you be so sure?" Henry inquired. He was smirking on the inside, as he was setting a trap for Takato, and had just laid out the bait.

"Just by watching her you can tell. The way she moves, the way she acts, all if it points towards someone that has little or no training. She thinks everyone's below her, so she doesn't even attempt to gauge an opponent's strengths and weaknesses. She refuses to learn from her past mistakes and ends up repeating them. She doesn't seem to be very aware of her surroundings at all, and almost got her head taken off because of it. Then when Gargomon had his gun pointed at her, she just sat there, didn't try to duck, run for cover, nothing. Like I said, she's no martial artist. Basic self-defense is as far as I'd go for her." Takato had no idea what he'd just walked into until it was too late.

"Wow, you must have been watching her for a while back there." Henry tried to suppress his grin, but was failing spectacularly.

"Ah hell." Takato hung his head. How could he have missed that? Was he really so wrapped up in his thoughts about the fiery redhead?

"And here I was, thinking you were joking about liking the 'Digimon Queen'." Henry was starting to see the appeal in teasing people. 'Maybe Terriermon's onto something here.'

"Takato's got a crush! Takato's got a-?" Terriermon as cutoff by a loud ripping noise.

Takato turned to the pint-sized dog/rabbit, his shaggy mop of brown hair casting a shadow over his eyes, but that didn't stop one of them from glowing ominously, making the boy appear like some kind of monster out of a nightmare. With a roll of duct tape in his hand, Takato lunged for Terriermon, who was too busy being terrified to run.

One minute, and a lot of screaming, later, Terriermon found himself taped to the ceiling of Guilmon's shed, tears falling from his eyes like miniature waterfalls. It was a rather hilarious sight...At least Henry thought so.

Looking back and forth between Takato and his partner, Henry smiled a little, which caught Takato's attention.

"...What?" the goggle-wearing Tamer leaned away from his friend slightly.

"...Takato's got a crush! Takato's got a crush!" Henry picked up where his digimon left off.

Takato's face twisted into a comical mix of disbelief, mock-anger and embarrassment.

"Just for that, I'm asking Jeri out on a date on Monday."

For a second, Henry was stunned, then his face began to grow hot as he thought about getting to the girl before his friend did. Then he frowned and threw Takato a dirty look.

"You're bluffing." he challenged.

"You think so?" Takato smirked a bit, but frowned again when Henry didn't take the bait. "Bah!"

"Humbug." Takato chuckled and shook his head.

"Since when were you funny?"

"Since about ten minutes ago." Terriermon supplied.

"...You did all that, yet you didn't tape his mouth shut?" Henry looked at his friend incredulously.

"Of course I did! He got it off...somehow." Takato scratched his head and looked at the strip of tape that was formerly over the Rookie's mouth, and was now on the ground. "Seriously, how'd you manage that?"

"I have my ways." was Terriermon's enigmatic reply.

"Ah yes, I forgot, my little friend is quite the escape artist." Henry let out a small snicker as he remembered just what, or _who_, forced his partner to become so good at escaping bonds.

"You can thank your sister for that." Terriermon suddenly twitched. "Um, guys? Can you get me down now? My ear itches and it's gonna drive me nuts!" he squirmed in an attempt to free himself enough to reach the afflicted ear.

"...Ten more minutes?" Takato suggested.

"I say fifteen." Henry grinned.

"Oh, come on! You're not still steamed about that tiny little prank, are you?"

"..." no reply.

"Momentai!" the digimon whined, squirming even more than before. "Ouch!" he yelped when his struggling caused the tape to pull on his fur.

"Alright, I'll get you down, but no more jokes about Takato's crush on Rika, got it?" Henry had to hide his smirk when he saw Takato twitch a bit.

"Okay, okay! Just get me down from here before I develop a fear of heights!"

Henry sighed and stared up at his partner, then scratched his head in confusion. "Speaking of heights, how did you get him up there in the first place?" the shed was at least eight feet high, and there was about a foot of concrete on every side, making the ceiling about seven feet up. Standing on his tiptoes, Takato may have been able to stick one of Terriermon's ears to the ceiling, but not much else. At least not in fifty seconds, which is how long it had taken the boy to accomplish this feat.

"I also have my ways."

"Uh-huh." Henry rolled his eyes and, using the still sleeping Guilmon as a stepping ladder, unstuck his partner from the shed's ceiling.

"Thank you!" Terriermon latched onto the side of Henry's head with a hug, causing him to lose his balance on Guilmon.

"H-Hey!" Henry protested before falling flat on his ass. "...Takato..."

"Yeah?" Takato answered after snickering a bit; that looked like something he'd do.

"Is it possible to break your butt?" Henry figured that, with what he'd seen him do already, Takato would be the authority on injuries.

This caught Takato completely off guard and he burst into laughter, falling over and clutching his sides.

"Glad my pain amuses you." Henry stood up and rubbed his smarting bottom.

"Yes. Yes it does." Takato also stood up. "Why were you asking me anyway?" okay, so Takato had made his share of mistakes on a snowboard...and a skateboard, and a bike, and a sled, and a scooter, and ice skates, and rollerblades, and an ATV, and a dirtbike, but Henry didn't know that.(12)

Henry shrugged. "Something about you, I dunno. You just look like you've broken a few bones in your life." 'More than just your own, I'm guessing.' he added silently.

'Numerous ribs, my right arm once, my left twice, my right leg, and my collarbone.' Takato mentally listed off his more severe injuries, but his verbal reply was very different. "No, not really. I usually know what I'm doing." 'Liar.'

"Liar." maybe Henry could read minds.

Takato hung his head. "That obvious, huh?" it had to be his look. He just looked like someone that was into extreme sports, and one of the more accurate stereotypes about people like that was that they often got themselves hurt in someway. This usually involved them trying out a new trick, or something else that would be labeled as "stupid" by outsiders.(13)

"Pretty much." Henry nodded.

Sighing, Takato leaned against the wall of the shed, watching Guilmon sleep for a few seconds before turning back to Henry.

"So, what do we do about Pineapplehead?" he asked, not able to figure out anything else to talk about at the moment.

"What, want to get her phone number, or something?" Terriermon said, then winced as he was lightly swatted by Henry. "What was that for?"

"What did I tell you about the crush jokes?"

"Momentai!"

"I'll let him put you back on the ceiling if you don't cut it out." Henry threatened.

Takato took out his roll of duct tape to drive the point home. "That's one."

"Okay, okay! Just keep that Tape Fiend away from me!"

"'Tape Fiend'?" Takato repeated. "That's a new one."

Henry just shook his head. "What do you mean 'what do we do'? What can we do?" he almost added "why should we do anything?", but he knew damn well why. Henry knew of Rika's exploits very well, he'd tried to stop a few of them, but he always got there too late. He often found himself wondering just how many digimon Rika and Renamon had taken out, mostly about how many were innocent and not really looking for a fight. From what Rika had told them, all digimon, even her partner, were simply data, not living creatures. Apparently, she thought this "fact" gave her free reign as to what she could do to them. To Henry, and Takato as well, destroying a digimon was the same as killing. To Rika, it was the same as sending an unwanted file on your computer to the recycle bin. Only difference was that digimon couldn't be restored with the click of a mouse.

Her ideas had to change, otherwise she'd keep destroying digimon without a second thought, and would keep coming after their partners.

"I suppose we could try to find her so we can talk some sense into her. Beating it into her won't work, she's too stubborn. In fact, I think it would have an effect opposite of what we intend. She thinks she's the best, and if one of us beats her, she's just going to find a way to make her partner stronger so she can reclaim her self-given title." this was something of a trend with Takato. Almost everyone he ever got into a fight with would come back for more, insisting that his earlier win was just a fluke. It was getting more than a little annoying. Why couldn't anyone just admit defeat nowadays? 'I wonder if Dad ever went through this kind of crap.'

"So, you want her phone number AND her address? You like to work fast, don't you?" Terriermon was swatted again. "Hey!"

"Don't 'hey' me. I told you, no more jokes!" the familiar ripping sound of the duct tape shut the digimon up real quick.

"That's two." Takato warned. "Three strikes and you're back on the ceiling."

"Anyway. Would you honestly want to talk to her? Scratch that, do you even think she'd let us? I don't think she'd willingly tell us where she lives, so we'd either have to follow her, and risk getting caught by her ninja fox, or we'd have to ask around. Either way, we could be accused to stalking her, and you know as well as I do that she'd use that against us in a heartbeat. We'd never hear the end of it!"

Takato scratched his chin. "Hmm...Asking around doesn't sound like too bad of an idea. That's not stalking, that's just asking questions. Besides, we don't have to tell people the truth, you know. We could say that she owes one of us money; or that she told us to come over at a certain time, but failed to mention where she lived because she's evil like that. We could say pretty much anything we wanted, as long as it gave us a valid reason to be looking for her. The real question is where do we start asking."

Henry furrowed his brow. "...Aren't you thinking a little too hard about this?" he smiled a little. "You must really want to see her again, huh?"

"Please, if I wanted to see her again I'd just take Guilmon and wander around the park for an hour. With my luck, she's bound to ambush me at some point." despite his words, Takato couldn't completely fight back the blush forming on his cheeks.

"Wow, looks like you've found your dream girl." it was weird. They'd only been friends for two days, yet Henry could already read Takato fairly well. Much better than most.

Takato chuckled. "Funny you should mention that." he proceeded to tell Henry about the night Guilmon came into being, of course leaving out his other two partners.

(Ten Minutes Later)

"Wait, you mean to tell me that you created Guilmon from a drawing in a sketchpad?" Henry rose an eyebrow at that, he could barely believe he was even saying it.

Takato nodded. "Yeah. I'm not really sure how it happened, but it did. Just look at him! You can tell Guilmon's not a known species of digimon. And, if you can't tell by sight alone, just check your D-Arc. It has info on every digimon out there, yet you won't get anything on him."

Henry pointed his device at Guilmon's sleeping form. A picture popped up on the holographic display, but that was it. Not even his name was displayed, just his picture.

"...Incredible." Henry breathed out. That was really the only thing there was to say. What else could be said about a digimon that was created from scratch by a thirteen year-old boy?

Takato shrugged. "I went with 'Awesome', but both suit the situation. So, what's you guys' story?"

Henry looked at Terriermon. "Us? Well, you might be a bit disappointed. The story of our meeting isn't nearly as...unique as yours." he would have used the word "weird" or "odd", but, when dealing with digimon, both of those words were, for all intents and purposes, useless.

"At least I wasn't such a hassle to locate." Terriermon giggled.

"Yeah, you didn't become a hassle until afterward." Henry laughed.

"What can I say? I like to keep you on your toes."

"Well, you do a fine job of it."

"Thank you."

Henry laughed again, then turned to Takato and retold the events that led up to him and Terriermon becoming partners and friends.

"Have you ever played the Digimon computer games?" the half-Chinese Tamer asked.

Takato shook his head. "Nope, I usually stay away from PC games in which I can't blow heads off." put him in an FPS, and he's a force to be reckoned with. Put him in an RPG, and he was lost.

"Well, I did, and I loved them."

(Another Ten Minutes Later)

"Well, if digimon are real, the Digital World would have to be real as well." Takato suddenly shuddered. "I hope its the only digital realm that actually exists."

Henry rose an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"What if things like Doom and Gears of War have their own worlds, separate from our own? Do you have any idea how pissed those Locusts and demons would be? They get their heads blown off for hours on end every single day! If they could somehow cross over, like the digimon can, 'deep shit' doesn't even BEGIN to describe the trouble we'd be in!" Takato was genuinely terrified of the idea. 'Great, now I'm gonna have nightmares about Hell Knights and Boomers hunting me down.'(14)

Henry scratched the side of his head. "...Overactive imagination?"

"Extremely." Takato deadpanned.

"You and my sister would probably hit it off pretty well." Henry frowned a bit as he remembered Jaarin's semi-frequent paranoid-delusional rants, usually involving secret government agencies, parallel universes, and said governments trying to gain access to said universes, often with apocalyptic results. They were funny at first, then they became annoying, and now they were just plain creepy. She seemed to have taken a special interest in mind control conspiracies.

"I don't think so." Terriermon crossed his arms and shook his head. "Takato only has eyes for his Dream Girl, and who are we to come between true love?" he found himself plucked from Henry's shoulder before he could even chuckle and was back on the ceiling in under a minute.

"That's three." Takato contemplated throwing small rocks at the digimon, but he wanted Terriermon to be uncomfortable, not in pain.

"And he's out!" Henry suddenly found himself wishing he had a whistle and a baseball cap.

"You see, my friend," Takato draped his arm over Henry's shoulders, "there are few problems that can't be solved with the suitable application of duct tape and/or high explosives."

"...Japanese redneck?"

"No, I just know a good thing when I see it." Takato tossed the gray roll of tape over to Henry. "And this is a good thing."

Henry looked from the tape to Terriermon and back again. "...I can't really bring myself to disagree with you there. Can I keep this?" he gestured to the tape.

"Sure, I've got plenty of it at home. Dad's the same way I am. Hell, the only reason a third of the house isn't covered with duct tape is because Mom won't let us fix things with it. Yeah, it may be a temporary fix, but it's a reliable temporary fix. And duct tape lasts for a really long time, so temporary, for it, is, like, two years, or something like that." why couldn't his mother see that? Duct tape may not be the solution to all problems, and it worked damn well for a whole lot of things.

Henry sported another highly uncharacteristic evil grin and looked at Terriermon. "You hear that, Terriermon? Are you gonna behave from now on, or am I going to have to introduce Suzie to the wonders of duct tape?" the lop-eared digimon had a hard enough time escaping from Henry's little sister as it was. But, with duct tape, she'd be at least twice as hazardous.

"Ahph beefhaph! Ahph beefhaph!" came Terriermon's incoherent, obviously terrified response.

"What?" Takato cocked his head to the side a bit.

"Ahph beefhaph!"

Takato reached up and carefully peeled the tape off of Terriermon's mouth. "What now?"

"I said 'I'll behave'!" the Rookie frowned. "It's not fair! I've been Henry's partner for months, yet he's always been just as uptight as ever. He hangs out with you for two days and he's already making jokes and threatening me!" he whined to Takato.

The goggled boy just shrugged. "What can I say? I'm contagious." the word "virus" suddenly sprung to his mind and he snapped his fingers. "You play the card game, right?" Takato asked. Upon receiving a nod from Henry, he grinned and pulled his deck from his pocket. "Care for a battle?"

Henry grinned as well and took out his cards. "I think I'm up for a game or two."

(Four Hours Later)

It had been an awesome game, lasting for over an hour, with both players constantly countering one another's moves. Turns out that, just like their personalities and digimon partners, they both have conflicting battle styles. Takato focused mainly on offense and misleading his opponent into making mistakes that he could capitalize on to win the game; but Henry was a defensive player, focusing more on absorbing damage and countering. Henry have proven to be too smart to mislead, and his defenses and countering abilities were more than enough to stand up to Takato's onslaught, so he was forced to change tactics at least three times throughout the game.

Takato's odds of winning also took another hit due to him being at a type disadvantage. The majority of Henry's digimon were Vaccine-types, and many of his support cards could counter the effects of Takato's "Vaccine Destroyer" cards, sometimes even reversing them and turning them against their owner.

Eventually, Takato was taken down once Henry brought out his System Reboot card(15), which destroyed every Virus-type digimon Takato had out and returned all Data-types to their Rookie stages, if they weren't already in that stage. Henry's Vaccine-type digimon were unaffected, and thus free to attack and destroy all of Rookies Takato was forced to put into play. Things almost seemed to turn around when Takato, by some miracle, managed to get his BlackWarGreymon on the battlefield, but it was quickly weakened by one of Henry's support cards, then destroyed by his MegaGargomon.

Takato was eventually down to his last playable Digimon card, a BlackAgumon, which was promptly destroyed by Henry's Magnadramon, which Takato almost forgot was even there, winning the thirteen year-old brainiac the game and bragging rights.

Takato made no excuses for his loss, only citing that he had gotten too complacent with his skills after only having his friends Kazu and Kenta to play with. Unlike _some_ people he knew, Takato could accept defeat and learn from it.

For the next three hours, Takato and Henry just talked about whatever popped into their heads. The first hour was mostly dedicated to reviewing the day's real life battle, and how to avoid another performance of the "Art of Failure", as Takato had put it. Both of them ended up agreeing that a repeat of today's events was inevitable as long as Rika was still in her current mindset.

That led to the next hour of conversation, which focused mainly on Rika's "malfunction", as supplied by the ever-wise(ass) Terriermon. Needless to say, the diminutive digimon barely avoided Takato's wrath after a sequence of jokes and thinly disguised innuendos, some of which went right over Henry's head, leaving him confused as to why Takato had gone ballistic. It was decided that they needed to know more about Rika before they could do anything about her. At the moment, they could only think of one way to lower her status as a threat: delete her partner. Needless to say, both Henry and Takato were greatly opposed to that idea. Though Terriermon's quote of "Do onto others _before_ they do onto you" was sort of tempting.

The next hour consisted of completely random topics, ranging from martial arts to animals, where it was revealed that Henry didn't enjoy the company of snakes at all. They even shared photos from their phones, though Takato made sure any photos with Lillymon or Calumon in them were hidden. Henry had some very humorous photos, all of which were taken by Terriermon during and after a pranking spree. They ranged from the face of Henry's brother, Rinchei, covered with various drawings made with a black Sharpie marker, to a single photo of Terriermon after he'd been captured by Henry's little sister, who thought he was a stuffed animal.

The showing of this photo, of course, drew instant protest from Terriermon, along with promises of revenge. Henry gulped a bit at that, since he knew all too well what his partner was capable of, but Takato just laughed and said, "Bring it, Pwettypants", but immediately got the feeling that he'd made a big mistake during his walk home.

Speaking of walks home, Henry's was particularly tiresome. Not physically because of the long walk, he actually lived closer to the park than Takato did, but psychologically due to all the what-ifs floating around in his head. Now that Takato wasn't there to take his mind off of them, they returned with a vengeance.

What if Terriermon hadn't digivolved?

What if he'd been deleted by Renamon?

What if Gargomon had hurt Rika or Takato?

What if he had killed them?

What if Terriermon had been deleted by Guilmon?

What if Gargomon had deleted Guilmon and/or Renamon?

Henry winced. It was all becoming too much.

Terriermon noticed the sudden slight jerk of his friend's body and looked down at him.

"Henry, what's wrong?" he came to a conclusion almost instantly. "It's about today, isn't it? I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to happen, it just...did, you know?"

Henry only sighed in frustration, though this irritation was directed more at himself than his partner. "It was just like last time, you went crazy then, too. What happened today is a perfect example of why I don't want you to fight! When you get carried away like that you become dangerous to everyone around you. You're not "you" anymore..." despite his bout of depression, Henry let a small smile show. "I guess Guilmon isn't the only one that needs to learn some self-control."

Terriermon frowned. "But if you're not gonna let me fight, what's the point?"

"Takato was right, some people just can't be reasoned with, and the same goes for digimon as well. We're going to get into a fight one day, no matter how much we try to avoid it, so we might as well make sure that we can at least hold our own." Henry laughed. "As Takato would probably put it, 'The best defense is a good offense'."

"Yeah, now you're talkin'!" Terriermon cheered.

Henry looked around for a moment, checking to see if there was anything around to hear his partner's outburst. Fortunately, few people were out on this Sunday night, most of them getting ready for work and school the next day.

(With Takato)

Soaking in his bath, Takato silently contemplated his upcoming schoolday. After being gone for an entire weekend, Kazu was bound to have something planned, which he'd relay to Kenta, but keep Takato out of the loop until the last second. Kazu called it giving Takato the benefit of plausible deniability, Takato just saw it as waiting until it was too late for him to back out. This meant that he'd be meeting up with Guilmon much later than he wanted, and that would only raise the chances of Guilmon coming to look for him.

'Maybe I can get BG to look after him.' that may have been a bad idea. The viral Champion might just stalk him throughout school just for kicks. Her ability to teleport would allow her to wreak all kinds of havoc and never get caught. She also struck him as the manipulative kind, so she'd likely get Calumon to join her, possibly even Guilmon. That's where the problems would come in. All BlackGatomon had to do was tell Calumon it was a game of hide and seek and the creampuff wouldn't be found for hours, but Guilmon couldn't even pronounce "subtlety", let alone grasp the concept of it.

It would also be difficult to convince his friends to let him go to the park alone, and the last thing he needed was for a digimon junkie like Kazu to see a live digimon. Kenta wasn't much of a problem, but Kazu would inevitably end up bragging about being friends with a real-life Tamer.

"Why do things have to be so complicated?" Takato dunked his head underwater, not coming back up over nearly two minutes. 'Damn, still can't beat Dad's mark!' Takehiro and Takato had once meditated at the bottom of a pool, where Takato only lasted a minute and twenty seconds, while his dad stayed down for close to four minutes. According to Takehiro, Takato's father could do it for five minutes or more. While Takato had absolutely no love for his father, not even the slightest bit of fondness, he had to admit that, if what Takehiro told him was true, Kentaro Matsuda was quite the impressive individual.(16)

Takato let out a low growl. Even remembering that man's name made his blood boil. But it wasn't the only thing heating up, the tattoo on his bicep was also acting up again.

"What the hell is this thing?" Takato wondered aloud.

"That, Takato, is for you to decide." came the sultry voice of LadyDevimon as she phased through the floor next to the tub.

"Ahh!" Takato yelped and ducked underwater again, splashing water everywhere. "W-What are you d-doing in here?" he said after poking his head back up, though he kept everything from his chin down submerged. He was starting to think that maybe he should've treated his bath as a shower and closed the curtains. But, when the person doing the peeking could move through solid objects, curtains were sort of pointless.

"Oh, don't be so shy, Takato! It's not like I haven't see you naked before." the Ultimate teased with an "evil" smirk.

"No more free shows for you!" Takato blushed, sinking into the water up to his eyes in an attempt to hide it.

"Stop being such a prude." LadyDevimon waved him off.

Takato snorted, causing a few bubbles to form in front of his face. Raising his head the out of the water, Takato glanced at his tattoo again. "You know something about this thing, don't you?"

The demon woman shrugged. "Maybe." came the enigmatic reply.

Deciding not to press on further, Takato changed the subject. "What's up with the evolution? You going to fight someone?"

LadyDevimon shrugged again. "Maybe." she giggled at the look on her Tamer's face. "I was planning on paying that girl, Rika, I believe you said her name was, a little visit." she grinned maliciously as her eyes glowed red.

"What are you planning? I told Lillymon she couldn't harm them, and the same goes for you."

"What? No! I'm not going to hurt either the girl or her partner, even though Lillymon did get her licks in, but nevermind that. I'm just going to scare her a bit, you know, have some fun. Maybe convince her that her house is haunted." she looked at Takato with another grin. "Besides, I'm sure you'd like to know where she lives, wouldn't you?"

Takato's eyes widened and he started to sputter out random nonsense before regaining some semblance of composure. "Y-You were watching us?" that was the only way she could have known of his conversation with Henry.

"Of course! You carried my D-Arc into battle, and it alerted me to the fact that you were in a fight. It does that so I can be ready if and when you need my help. Same goes for SG. After it was over, I simply teleported myself to Guilmon's shed and hid my presence from you all. You are my Tamer, and, as such, I must protect you from all threats. I can't do that efficiently unless I know what you're doing and where you are most, of not all, of the time." 'I'm starting to sound a bit like SkullGreymon.' LadyDevimon thought, a bit amused by the notion of digivolving into a cybernetic version of herself.

She then burst out laughing as she thought of her breasts functioning as missile launchers. She'd have to convince Takato to draw that at some point.

"What's so funny?" something about that spontaneous fit of laughter rubbed Takato the wrong way.

"Nothing, nothing, just imagining the look on that girl's face when things start moving around her room on their own. Ciao!" the demonic Ultimate waved to her Tamer before disappearing back into the floor.

"Why, wait!" it was too late, she was gone. "Crap...I should've at least given her my phone so she could take pictures." he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a finger poke him in the back. Whirling around, he saw LadyDevimon's gloved hand protruding from the wall, his cell phone in her palm. Takato grinned as the hand retreated back through the wall, phone and all. At least he had some funny pictures to show off tomorrow. 'Man, Pineapplehead would murder me if she ever found out...Guess I'll just have to make sure she doesn't.' he laughed maniacally, but was interrupted by his mother.

"Takato, are you plotting something?"

"No." Takato replied. It was technically the truth, there was no plotting involved in what he was planning for tomorrow. Just the simple showing of some pictures.

"Just don't get caught, son!"

"Stop encouraging him, Takehiro!"

"But it's our job, as parents, to support our child in all of his endeavors!" Takato's stepfather protested.

"And what if he decides to become a serial killer?" Mie countered.

"Mom! I can hear you!" Takato yelled.

"Okay, most of his endeavors. Nothing evil, or anything like that."

"Plotting is the first step to becoming evil!"

"Mom!"

"I...My brain hurts!" Takato sweatdropped when he heard his dad whine like a child.

"You're only saying that because you know I'm right!"

Takehiro's only response was a pitiful groan.

Takato slowly let his body slid under the water. "My parents are nuts." he muttered before closing his eyes and going completely under.

(Twenty Minutes Later)

Takato sat at his desk, hunched over his drawing pad and twirling his pencil between his fingers. But, try as he might, nothing would come to him. He had absolutely no inspiration to draw anything at the moment.

"Crap!" he sighed loudly and leaned back in his chair. Grabbing one of his numerous stressballs, Takato began to rhythmically squeeze of sphere in his right hand while continuing to twirl his pencil with his left. A persistent buzzing noise caused him to look to his side. He often left his window open when the nights were uncomfortably warm, like tonight, but this was the first time in a while that he'd had an unwelcome guest come through it. "Damn flies." Takato muttered and threw his stressball at the winged beast. Much to his surprise, the fly was struck by the ball and smashed against the wall, making a small, but nasty, red and green blotch. "Huh..." he shrugged, must have been a lucky shot.(17)

Still at a loss for what to draw, Takato used a tried and true technique that was always sure to show some results. Closing his eyes, he let his imagination take him away and drew the basic outline of the first thing that popped into his head. After a minute of this, he opened his eyes to see what he'd done, only to scratch his head at the drawing.

"What is that?" it looked sort of like a cross between an egg and an Agave houseplant. 'Actually, it looks kinda like a pinea-!' Takato's train of thought immediately derailed. "Craaaaaaaap!" he hissed.

(Nonaka Residence)

"I don't get it." Rika muttered to herself, staring at the cards laid out on the table before her. "That weakling digivolves on his own, yet Renamon stays the same even with two modify cards!" she snarled and flicked the Gargomon card off of the table, then looked at the assortment of cards still in her hand. "What does that _boy_ have that I don't, huh?" fanning the cards out and scanning through them, she found not a single one suitable for her purpose. "This is ridiculous." without turning around, she spoke to the one whose presence she'd felt behind her for the past fifteen minutes. "You'd better digivolve soon, Renamon. I _won't_ be threatened by some overgrown rabbit."

The kitsune remained silent, only nodding for her response.

Neither she, nor Rika, felt the dark presence that had arrived at the large, traditional-style house. Nor did they see the pair of crimson eyes that stared down at them from the ceiling.

'Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun.' LadyDevimon grinned and opened Takato's phone, pressing the button to activate the camera. 'I think I'll go for a couple of "before and after" pics.' she had the "before", now she just had to wait for the girl and her digimon to leave the room so she could get to work on the "after".

XXXX

And there you have it!

Thanks go to Atrumfides, my unofficial Beta Reader, for proofing this thing for me.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear for any nitpickers out there. I am well aware of the fact that the canon battle between Guilmon, Renamon and Gargomon went very differently, but I needed to change some things. I also needed to get rid of the retarded dialogue from the Tamers in that scene, especially Henry. He was sitting there all distraught over Terriermon's digivolution, pointing out crap along the lines of his partner not being the same person anymore. I can see what they meant, he was going nuts, but that's not the true case, at least not when Henry said it. In the episode, you can clearly hear Gargomon say "Whoa, this is hard!", meaning that he's having trouble controlling his new powers. He even says he's sorry after blowing up the first car, showing that he does, indeed, still have Terriermon's mindset at the time. I found Henry's lines completely moronic and overdramatic, at least at the time in which they were said.

I'd also like to add another minor detail about the story here. In this story, not only will digimon bleed(in the original Japanese version, Renamon actually does draw blood when she claws Gargomon), they will also have the ability to actually roar and growl. No more lame-ass humanoid "GRAAAAAAAH" crap. If I knew how to spell out Jurassic Park sound effects, I'd do it now. But I don't, so I can't.

(1) Seriously, why are their so many fireball attacks? And why, if Takato created Guilmon pretty much specifically to be better than Agumon, did he give him a powered-up version of the same attack? The only real difference is that Agumon's Pepper Breath actually looks like fire, while Guilmon's Pyro Sphere looks like something out of Dragonball Z, and Guilmon's explodes on impact. Agumon's kinda just went "fwoosh".

(2) Throughout his story, you'll see Guilmon "evolve", so to speak, in order to handle different situations without Takato telling him to. Aiming ahead of a moving target is just the first of many battle tactics Guilmon will learn. Other tactics, like using the environment to his advantage, will come along later. He's still a child, for all intents and purposes, so I can't have him advancing too fast. Gotta keep this at least somewhat believable.

(3) Why didn't Rika panic like this before? Simple, because in the last battle Guilmon actually listened to his Tamer. Now Takato's frantically trying to call Guilmon off, and he ain't havin' it. Rika knows she and her partner are in deep shit, and she's not used to it at all.

(4) Some of you may feel that I'm making Rika too emotional, or too soft. Well...Does it seem like I care? Truth is, yes, I am making her more emotional than she is in canon, but I have my reasons. One of which being that Rika is used to being on top of the pile, the Queen of the Hill, so to speak. She has no experience with that type of situation, and when the reality of it all crashes down on her, she panics. She's no longer in control, and she doesn't like it at all. As for her all but weeping over Renamon, it's fairly obvious to anyone observant enough that she shares a deeper bond with Renamon than she's willing to admit. I'm just making it a bit more obvious(By the way, in case you didn't pick it up, I'm talking about before the fight with Dokugumon and the "I'm your friend!" thing).

(5) Things like this will happen a lot. Takato will hold someone back(Henry), or yell at them for doing something stupid(Rika), then end doing something even more reckless. Oh yes, expect many mutterings of "hypocrite" from other characters throughout the course of the story.

(6) Ah, Hollywood Magic. It can make anything happen, regardless of the laws of physics. Like firing an assault rifle into the water and actually having the bullet penetrate about ten feet. Or having a flaming machete pass completely through a human chest and still remain ablaze. Or making someone fly back about fifteen feet after being hit with a blast from a 12-gauge.

(7) Yes, I am still using US currency for this fic. You got a problem with it, take it up with Bob in the Financial department.

(Edit - 6/13/09: Also fixed with correct currency. Bob said I was just being lazy and made me change it.)

(8) Yes, Henry's a bit OOC here, but there's an old saying along the lines of "Even Buddha will retaliate if struck three times." or something like that. I either heard that in a movie, or in a nature documentary about normally docile animals attacking when sufficiently provoked. I seem to remember it coming from a narrator of some kind, so I'm leaning towards a documentary. The point is: Henry ain't Buddha, so he naturally has a much shorter fuse, though longer than most, and he was in no mood for jokes at that point. Especially not ones made at his expense.

(9) Especially when compared to the utterly retarded trash that's on nowadays. Fuck that shit, give me Daffy Duck any day. Hell, take me back to the '90's! The days of Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Pinky & the Brain, The Mask and Godzilla: The Series! Back when Digimon was a good show! What happened to actual humor in cartoons(Freakazoid, Animaniacs, The Mask), and decent plotlines(Godzilla)? Now everything's just a rip-off of something else. WB and Cartoon Network don't even air reruns of their old shows anymore, just so they can free-up their weekly line-up for the rest of their new bullshit. Yes, I fucking watch cartoons! And, if you're reading this, you do, too, so you know I speak the truth!

(10) Maybe he should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque?

(11) Before any of you go thinking too hard about it, this is NOT a "Note to self: Don't piss Takato off" moment, it's a "Note to self: Don't let Takato punch me" moment. This has two meanings to it. Either Henry avoids fighting Takato period, as he'd prefer to do anyway, or Henry avoids getting hit should they ever get into a fight for whatever reason.

(12) I believe I mentioned it before, but, in case I didn't, here it is again! Takato's goggles aren't just for show in this fic. Yes, I know, they have the minor purpose of allowing Takato through Digital Fields, like Rika and Henry's sunglasses, but that was pretty much it. And the Digital Field thing was not a part of the original reason he put the goggles on in the canon series.

(13) It's true. If you're a real fan of a certain sport, you'll more than likely attempt to replicate something you've seen professionals do(why do you think everything comes with a "Do Not Try" warning?). You'll also get less than spectacular results most of the time. Before some adrenaline junkie pops up and says "STFU! U dont know what ur talking about!", I'm into Motocross and snowboarding, myself.

(14) I'm not going to outright tell you what year this fic takes place in, so just know that Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion are out. I'll drop other clues for you, so have fun with that.

(15) I don't care if it's not really a card, or it is and that's not the really effect. My fic, my rules. Remember, this is fanFICTION, not fancanon.

(16) Explanation time! Mie's last name is Nodako, but she took Kentaro's last name when she married him, changing it to Matsuda. But, after Kentaro split, Takehiro, a friend to both Mie and Kentaro for years, stepped in. Takehiro's last name is Matsuki, which Mie took when she married him. So, technically, Takato's actual last name is Matsuda. I did this just so I could incorporate both the Japanese and English versions of his surname since they're so similar. To be honest, I always liked Matsuda better than Matsuki. Don't really know why, though. Also, for future reference, Takehiro will be called "Dad" by Takato, while Kentaro will be known only as "Father", or something more on the vulgar side if Takato's angry at the time.

(17) I know I mentioned this before, but here it is again for those that forgot. Takato will possess uncanny, borderline unnatural, accuracy when throwing an object. For anyone that's a Daredevil fan(film or comic series), Takato will be something like Bullseye. He'll eventually be able to throw things like pencils and eating utensils with deadly accuracy, but it will take him a while to figure out how to make certain objects actually do any damage. For example: he'll be able to nail someone in the head with a pen while they're in the middle of a crowd at a pretty decent range, but he'll need to practice(a LOT) to be able to, say, put the tip of said pen right through someone's eye. Of course, this is just an exaggeration. Takato won't turn into a sociopathic killer with a penchant for putting butter knives through people's skulls at fifty paces. Doesn't mean he won't hit someone in the face with an egg, or a book, from down a hallway, though.

Why are there so many footnotes? I want to give people as little to nitpick about as possible. I used these for things I felt would be the most likely to be questioned/criticized(obviously, 10 was just thrown in as a joke). Hopefully, this will also lead some people to write an actual review! "Keep it up!" is NOT a review, it's encouragement. There's a maximum character limit on reviews, so why can't there be a minimum requirement? But, if that were to happen, most people wouldn't leave reviews at all. So I guess something is better than nothing.

Also, in the future, if you want to know how one of my stories is progressing, please ask in the form of a PM and not a review.

I guess that's it, then. As usual, questions will be answered to the best of my ability as long as they are within reason, and pertaining to the story. Again, I must stress that if you're going to ask about the progress of a story, PM me, same goes for any requests you have(story ideas you'd like to see me try my hand at, one of your own stories you want my opinion on, etc...).

Well, if there's nothing else...

Jason Out!


	6. People, Plans and Pranks

Hello, people! After one hell of a delay, I'm back with chapter six of Tamer of the Hazard!

This chapter doesn't have much in the way of action...None, really. I'm focusing more on the characters themselves in this one.

Well, I guess there's not much else to say, so let's get on with it, shall we?

Hope you enjoy the sixth installment of Tamer of the Hazard!

XXXX

"Rika, dear, are you in there?" a woman's voice came from outside of Rika's door.

The girl's eyes widened a few millimeters and she looked over to command her digimon to hide, but found that she was already gone.

"Yes, Grandma, I'm in here." Rika mumbled something under her breath, walked over to the door and slid it open. "Is there something wrong?" her grandmother hardly ever bothered her unless something was up.

The woman, who looked a bit too young to be a grandmother, simply gave the girl a soft smile.

"No, I just though I heard you talking to someone...Just checking to make sure you're not inviting boys into the house behind our backs." the woman's gentle smile turned into a teasing smirk as she saw Rika's cheeks take on a light, almost unnoticeable shade of pink.

"Har, har, Grandma, very funny." Rika frowned, doing her best to fight down her blush. "I was just thinking out loud again." it was a valid excuse, since she had a habit of doing that ever since she was little.

"Oh? Anything I can help with?" Rika always turned down any form of help, but her grandmother refused to give up.

"No, that's okay...I was just thinking of strategies to use in the next Digimon Tournament." bringing the card game into the conversation was always a surefire way of getting either her mother or grandmother to drop it move on.

But not this time. "It must have you really worked up...You seem far too tense. Why don't you take a break and help me with dinner?" 'Your Digimon talk may work on my daughter, but I'm not so easily deterred.' Seiko mentally chuckled, remembering when she used the same tactic on her own parents when she was Rika's age.

Rika glanced over her shoulder at the cards on the table and swore that she saw a foreign shadow next to it, but she blinked and it disappeared.

"I don't know...I think I was onto something just now."

'Time to bring out the big guns.' Seiko smiled again. "I'm making chicken teriyaki..." one of the few things Rika couldn't resist was her grandmother's "famous" chicken teriyaki. Add to that the opportunity to not only learn how to make it, but to add anything she wanted to it, and digimon be damned, she was there!

"...Okay." Rika submitted; there wasn't much else she could do. At the moment, there was nothing important enough to give up her favorite meal for.

One the outside, Seiko just smiled and walked away back to the kitchen, her granddaughter following. But on the inside, a chibi version of Seiko was dancing and cheering at the fact that no matter how cold and detached the girl acted, she was still a sucker for her grandmother's cooking.

Watching silently from the shadows, Renamon simply cocked her head to the side a bit. No matter how many times she saw it, she was still amazed at just how much power a simple food item held over her Tamer. While she had to admit that it was delicious, she doubted there was any food in either world that would make her suddenly stop whatever she was doing just to sample it.

'Well, maybe one thing...' images of cinnamon buns floated into her head. But those thoughts were for another time. While Rika was often able to sneak leftovers to Renamon, the digimon wasn't foolish enough to think she could rely on that. While neither her mother nor grandmother questioned Rika's actions, most of the time, they would eventually confront her about eating an entire meal, then going back for seconds hours later. At the very least, her mother would give her a lecture about keeping her "feminine figure".

That being the case, it was time for Renamon to go out and find her own meal. Maybe she'd "help herself" to the contents of one of those deli shops? After a week of staking a particular place out, she'd managed to pick up the security code to the alarm, and the place didn't have cameras. But getting in was easy, it was making it look like nothing had happened after she left that was the difficult part.

She had to make sure everything was in its proper place, and rearrange certain things so that a few missing leftover items wouldn't be noticed. And even if they were, the owners would never suspect outside forces. Renamon had really lucked out with that deli. It was family owned, and the eldest son was a sleep-eater, meaning he would often get out of his bed and navigate down to the kitchen and make himself a "midnight snack" all while asleep. Then he'd walk back upstairs, get back into bed and not stir for the rest of the night. The best part was that he never remembered what he did.

He'd been getting help with his disorder for the past month, and hadn't eaten in his sleep for two weeks. But neither he nor his family knew that.

Deciding on her course of action, Renamon leapt off the roof of the Nonaka residence, clearing the entire yard with a single bound, and landed on the parameter wall before jumping off and disappearing into the night.

As she left, a rather large figure melted out of the wall in Rika's room like a ghost, but Casper this was not. The grin the being sported was anything but friendly.

"Show time." LadyDevimon chortled to herself and set about rearranging the red-haired girl's room.

Spying the Tamer's deck of cards, the Ultimate took it upon herself to gather them all up and move them from the table to the dresser. Finding the girl's cell phone on said dresser, the digimon opened the device and rose an eyebrow at the background image; a black skull with glowing purple eye sockets.

"...Pretty cool...But it doesn't work for me." with a devious smirk, LadyDevimon used her prodigious technological skills to find the image archives within Rika's phone. After finding a "suitable" image, her smirk widened into an evil grin. "This should do nicely." she kept the phone open and sat it on the table.

LadyDevimon then walked back over to the dresser and began pulling out and rearranging drawers, but not sifting through any of them. She contemplated giving Takato a pair of the girl's panties as a gag, but she wanted to tease him, not give him a heart attack.

After a bit more rearrangement, including moving Rika's single Digimon poster from the left wall to the right, LadyDevimon stepped back and scanned the room, happy with her work.

"Now, on to phase two!" this would require her to directly mess with the female Tamer. "This is gonna be good." quietly cackling to herself, the demon woman slowly sank into the flow and made her way to the kitchen, where Rika was busy watching everything her grandmother did.

"Okay, so now that we've got everything we want in here, I'll put the chicken in." Seiko picked up two raw chicken breasts and placed them inside of a bowl full of light-brown liquid, making sure they were completely covered before handing the bowl to her granddaughter, who was following and memorizing her every word and motion. "Now put that in the refrigerator to marinate for about fifteen minutes. After that, we'll get started on the vegetables." the woman smiled, then suddenly stopped while reaching the large kitchen knife on the counter to her left. "Oh! Almost forgot, always wash your hands after touching raw meat." quickly scurrying over to the sink, Seiko proceeded to do just that.

Rika placed the bowl one the middle shelf inside the fridge, then closed the door and followed her grandmother's example.

As soon as she turned her back, an odd distortion in the air, almost like gas from an oven, rose up from the floor in front of the fridge. The door was slowly and silently pulled until the weak magnetic seal was broken and the door was left to swing open on its own.

'This'll be a good start.' doors opening and closing "by themselves" would always be a classic staple of "hauntings". LadyDevimon had learned a neat little trick from a Phantomon long ago. A trick that allowed her to use her dark energy to bend light around her in order to render herself invisible to the normal eyes, both human and digimon alike...Well, mostly invisible. A slight distortion in the air in the shape of her outline could be seen if one looked close enough, but she could be long gone before anyone noticed something was up.

But, even though she had been able to use this nifty little ability for a while, she still couldn't keep it up for more than a few minutes at a time. But that was more than enough time to freak someone out.

Reaching into the open fridge, the digimon lightly tapped an apple that was sitting on the same shelf as the marinating chicken, causing it to roll around and eventually fall out.

The noise attracted Seiko's attention and she frowned, though it was barely noticeable. "Rika, dear, you need to slow down, or else you'll overlook things." she pointed at the fridge.

Rika furrowed her brow. 'I could've sworn I closed that.' maybe she didn't do it properly? No, that couldn't have been the case. Her mother often "reprimanded" her for using too much force when closing doors, and with the magnetic seal, the refrigerator wasn't something that would rebound and open again after being slammed too hard. Nevertheless, she just shook her head and walked over to close the door again.

After making sure it was firmly shut, Rika turned and began to walk back towards her grandmother, hoping that she wasn't missing anything important. It was then that she nearly tripped on the apple that seemed to roll into her path of its own volition.

"What the..." Rika nearly completed her vulgar question, but paused as she saw her grandmother's head turn just slightly. Bending over to pick the wayward fruit up, she nearly tumbled forward when it rolled out of her reach just before her fingers touched it.

Rika simply blinked, trying to process what she'd just seen. She shook her head to clear it, she must have accidentally poked it, or something. Fruit didn't just move on its own. She tried for it again, but got the same result. To anyone watching, the scene would have looked something like two magnets of opposing polarities pushing one another across a table.

The girl was quickly becoming annoyed with the apple, briefly overlooking the fact that an inanimate item, normally meant for consumption, was running...er, rolling away from her. The thing also seemed to know its way around the kitchen, rolling under the chairs to use them for cover and leading Rika around the counter in the center of the room.

All the while, Seiko just watched, her expression betraying no small amount of confusion and amusement.

"Rika...What are you doing?"

"This damn apple won't let me pick it up!" Rika finally snapped and lunged at the fruit.

It was then that the apple appeared to acquire the ability to jump, as it shot into the air just before Rika's hands came down on it, causing her to nearly faceplant on the tiled floor.

Seiko would have reprimanded her granddaughter for such language if not for the fact that she had seen the apple take flight for no apparent reason other than to escape capture. Frowning, the middle-aged grandmother stooped to pick the apple up as it bounced after landing from its "jump" and rolled across the floor and stopped near her right foot. She ended up not having any trouble with the green-skinned fruit and inspected it for anything unusual, like springs. Finding nothing, and noting her now standing granddaughter's incredulous, yet furious look, Seiko took a knife and cut the apple in half, revealing...seeds.

"..." Rika simply stared at the bisected apple, her mouth going from a thin line to a deep frown.

Seiko just sighed, threw the two halves in the wastebasket, and went about picking out vegetables from the fridge.

"Come on, Rika, we've still got quite a bit of work to do. Why don't you start on the rice?"

Rika didn't give an audible response, she just nodded and set about rummaging around for the proper pot inside one of cabinets under the sink.

'Oh, come on! Where the hell is it?' she knew what she was looking for, and she knew where it was supposed to be, but she couldn't find it. "Ah, here we go." she felt the edge of the pot and grabbed onto it. Then something grabbed onto her.

With a distinctly un-Rika-like scream, the teen violently recoiled from the cabinet and immediately ran behind her grandmother.

To say Seiko was surprised would be a gross understatement. "Rika, what's gotten into you?"

"Something's in the cabinet!" Rika squeaked, something that she hadn't done in years.

Her grandmother rose an eyebrow and frowned a bit. "What are you talking about? Some kind of animal?"

Rika shook her head frantically. "No! It wasn't an animal...It grabbed me...It felt like a hand..." she couldn't really believe what she was saying, but it was the truth; regardless of how absurd it sounded.

Now Seiko was beginning to become concerned for her granddaughter. "Rika, honey...Have you been under a lot of stress lately?"

Rika was about to retort, but stopped as the face of her newest enemy appeared before her mind's eye with an arrogant grin that just screamed "I'm better than you". Then there was the fact that the blue-haired boy had managed to make his runt of a digimon digivolve, while Renamon had no such luck. Rika was beginning to doubt herself; beginning to give into that little voice in the back of her head that told her that she was the weak link in the partnership, not Renamon.

With all the conflicting thoughts flying about in her head, maybe the pressure of it all was finally getting to her. Maybe those long, sleepless nights of developing strategies were finally taking their toll. Maybe it was the result of her constantly wracking her brain for answers as to why Renamon, _her_ Renamon, continued to grow stronger, yet still couldn't break that final barrier and achieve the next level.

Rika looked down as a battle between her two sides raged on. One side wanted her to just admit that everything was getting to her. That being at the "top of the pile" in everything, from grades and test scores, to card tournaments and digimon taming, was just making life harder for her. The other side, however, couldn't disagree more. It wanted Rika to realize that she was far too strong for something as simple as stress to get the better of her.

But, for the first time in a long while, Rika's prideful side didn't win out.

"Yeah...I guess I have been under a lot of stress..." she settled on a quick explanation before her grandmother could ask questions, "The workload at school has nearly doubled in the past month, so I guess I've been bugging out about keeping my grades up...Don't want to disappoint mom, you know?" the girl cracked a small smile, though it was about as transparent as glass.

Seiko instantly knew Rika was keeping something from her, but decided not to push the subject, knowing that it would lead to only one outcome: Rika storming off to her room after exploding. It had happened every time before. and Seiko knew prying wouldn't do either of them any good.

So, instead of asking about it, the middle-aged woman just sighed. "That's understandable, I was in the same situation as you when I was your age." she chuckled a little. "Just wait until you get to high school, then you'll be wishing for your current workload."

Rika laughed nervously. She never did like the subject of high school, mainly because the conversation would eventually turn to the effects of puberty, and the importance of keeping hormones under control. Needless to say, this was the last thing she wished to discuss with her grandmother.

Taking note of Rika's unease, and that the girl's own mind appeared to be playing tricks on her, Seiko chose to let her go. At least she'd had some help with tonight's meal. It wasn't as if she needed it, far from it. But, no matter how many years she'd done it, or how much she'd thought she'd gotten used to it, Seiko did get lonely from time to time. And it wasn't just in the kitchen. Half the time, the Nonaka household was empty, save for herself.

Her daughter seemed to always be running off to the one photo shoot after another, and her granddaughter only dropped by to ditch one uniform for another before she dashed off once again, not to be seen again until sundown or later. Even when she was home while the sun was still in the sky, she was rarely in the mood to talk, and often headed straight for her room after a quick greeting.

Suddenly, Seiko wanted Rika to stay, if only so she'd have someone to talk to. Just knowing that she wasn't completely alone in the house would have been enough. Once Rika was in her room, she might as well not even be in the house anymore. But Seiko was never in the habit of being selfish, and always put her family before herself.

"Why don't you go lay down for a bit? I've got everything under control here, so I'll call you when dinner's ready."

For a brief moment, Rika wanted to refuse the offer and say that she was just fine. But she thought better of it, knowing that the kitchen was no place to be when your own mind decided to screw with you.

And Rika's mind was definitely playing tricks on her. Apples moving on their own? Hands inside of cabinets?

'Maybe I do need to lay down.' Rika nodded to her grandmother and shuffled out of the kitchen.

As she went, Seiko reached into the right pocket of her pants and pulled out a lime green iPod.

"Looks like it's just you and me tonight...as usual." with a sigh, the woman brushed her light brown hair behind her ears, put in the earbuds, and turned on the device that held all of her favorite tunes. She never noticed the dark shadow that sped out of the kitchen and into the hallway to follow her granddaughter.

Had she been paying attention to her surroundings, instead of being wrapped up in her own thoughts, Rika might have noticed the same eerie shadow moving past her and slipping under the door to her room.

Upon entering her room and locking the door behind her, Rika immediately knew that something was off. She looked at the table in the middle of the floor and noticed that her cards weren't there, having been mysteriously replaced by her cell phone.

"The hell?" Rika chanced a look behind her, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. She then shook her head and sighed. 'Great, now I don't even remember what I was doing just twenty minutes ago.' she really needed to lay down.

After closing the door behind her, Rika took a quick glance around the room, not noticing anything else out of place, only the cards and the phone. She also noticed that her cards were stacked neatly on her dresser, and that her phone was flipped open as it sat innocently on the table. Raising an eyebrow, she cautiously stepped towards the phone, as if it was a volatile explosive device.

Hell, with what she'd already seen and felt, she wouldn't have been surprised if the phone grew spider legs and tried to crawl away. The mere thought of that made her not want to take another step, but she did anyway. If it was going to crawl away, it was going to crawl away. She could kill it afterwards.

Fortunately, the phone remained a harmless, legless device as Rika grabbed it. But, as she picked it up, her finger pressed the volume control button, making the backlight come on, revealing the new background.

Rika nearly dropped the phone when she saw it. It was _worse_ than spider legs!

"Pink...Why is there so much pink?" the girl muttered to herself as she stared, uncomprehendingly, at the image that was on display. It featured three small, fluffy, white kittens playing around with huge, bright pink ribbon. What happened to the skull? The creepy, glowing "eyes"? Why pink? Why kittens? Why _PINK_?

After some frantic button-pushing, the kittens were banished back to the pit from whence they came, and the skull was back in its rightful place. Now the question was: who put the kittens there in the first place? Rika certainly didn't do it herself. Her mother hasn't even in the same country at the moment. Her grandmother knew her way around a cell phone, but she wasn't one for pranks, and Rika had been with her for the past twenty minutes. And Renamon...With her fingers, could she even use a cell phone? She could have used her claws, but there'd be marks on the keypads if that were the case. Plus, Renamon had only a basic idea what a cell phone was, so there was no way she'd have been able to change settings like that.

That only left one other possible explanation...Someone else had been in her room.

This revelation sent an involuntary chill up Rika's spine, knowing that someone had managed to get past Renamon and mess with her stuff.

Her first thought was to call on her digimon, but when Rika looked up, she saw the vague outline of the poster that was supposed to be on the wall in front of her. It had been there for three years, never having been moved or taken down...And now it was gone.

Looking around, Rika found that the poster was now behind her, barely clinging to the wall with the help of the years-old tape that struggled to stick to the new surface. In that instant, Rika's fear and apprehension were overwhelmed by a sudden burst of unbridled fury. Not even her own family touched that poster, and for good reason. It was just about the only thing Rika owned that held any kind of sentimental value, and anyone who touched it did so at their own risk.

"Alright, that does it! Come out, right now, so I can kick your ass!" Rika hopped to her feet, hands clenched into tight fists and a vicious snarl marring her facial features.

LadyDevimon was taken aback by the sudden change in the girl's demeanor. She'd been planning a whole night of terror for the red-haired tomboy, but the "aura of rage" that the female Tamer was exuding actually made the Ultimate-level digimon think twice about it. Normally, nothing short of a ridiculously powerful digimon, or the Boss himself, could make LadyDevimon second-guess herself; yet here was this human girl, a being whom could be destroyed in a million ways with very little effort on the part of the demon woman, that made LadyDevimon want nothing more than to go home to her own Tamer.

'Note to self: Don't mess with the poster.' with a mental sigh, the Ultimate reluctantly decided to yield, concluding that the young teen was too pissed off to scare. She'd already gotten all the information she needed(i.e. where she lived), so now there really wasn't any reason to stay. 'You win this round, but I'll come back! And by the time I'm through with you, you'll be having nightmares for weeks!' with thoughts of a traumatized redhead in her head, LadyDevimon left the irate teen's home and headed off to her own, idly noting that the girl's Renamon was just returning. 'Hm, she's pretty strong, for a Rookie.' she smirked as she took flight and quickly became little more than a small speck in the clear night sky to anyone at ground-level.

"Rika?" Renamon called before going to slide the door to her Tamer's room open, only to find it locked. "Are you alright?" she lightly tapped the back of her finger on the wooden frame of the door, hoping to get her partner's attention.

The kitsune heard light footfalls as Rika made her way to the door and flipped the latch to unlock it. As she slid the door open, she was greeted to the sight of a thoroughly disgruntled-looking girl who, despite being enraged, was taking great care in peeling her Digimon poster off of the wall.

"Rika...what happened?" Renamon noticed that the poster was on the wrong side of the room, which was probably the cause of Rika's anger, but that didn't explain the fear that Renamon had felt through their mental connection.

"Someone was in my room." Rika growled out as the last piece of tape came off of the wall without a fight. She knew she would need new tape to put the poster back in its rightful place, but she also knew she wouldn't be able to remove the current tape without damaging the poster.

Renamon instantly stiffened and dashed out of the room. She proceeded to check every square inch of the property for any signs of an intruder.

If Rika noticed her digimon's sudden departure, she didn't react to it. Instead, she walked over to her dresser, where a pair of scissors awaited. For the next two minutes, Rika slowly and carefully cut the overlapping tape from the poster, taking pains to make sure that every edge was as perfect as it could be without harming the paper. It was at times like there where Rika wished she'd had the poster laminated, then she'd never have to worry about tape, tearing, or even the natural effects of aging ruining her prized poster.

After going over each edge for a second time, Rika took four small strips of tape from the dispenser, also on her dresser. It took her another two minutes of repositioning and re-sticking to get the poster into the exact same position as before, but she did it, and felt most of her earlier anger melt away once she was finished.

It was then that Renamon opened the door and walked inside, taking one last look before closing it again.

"I didn't find any signs of intrusion." the digimon informed her partner, though it didn't really matter. It was obvious that someone had been in Rika's room, and that someone wasn't invited. Afterall, the only other person on the property was Rika's grandmother, and she would never touch that poster, let alone move it to the other side of the room.

Rika held in a scathing reply and simply snorted as she turned to Renamon. "What's that?" she gestured to the brown paper bag in the kitsune's right hand.

Renamon looked down at the bag, which she'd honestly forgotten she still had, then back to her Tamer. "I was preparing to eat my dinner when I felt your fear through our link. Instead of wasting a perfectly good sandwich, I just put it in a bag and took it with me." when she had felt it, Renamon was already outside of the deli she'd broken into, having already reset the alarm. She had taken a single paper bag with her when she left, though she didn't remember what for. But it turned out to be a wise decision, otherwise she would have lost her dinner.

Rika shook her head, knowing exactly where Renamon had gotten the contents of the bag, even without the help of the logo on the front of it.

"One of these days, you're gonna get caught if you keep doing that."

"I doubt it."

Rika had to smirk at her partner's confidence, and the fact that the digimon's words mirrored her own thoughts on Renamon being caught.

With a sigh, the girl plopped down on the floor, laid back and began to stare at the ceiling. After a few seconds, she sighed again and called her partner.

"Renamon..."

"Yes, Rika?" despite wanting to head up to the roof to eat her sandwich, Renamon would always listen to anything her Tamer had to say.

"...Are you alright?" Rika finally asked after a short pause.

Renamon cocked her head to the side a bit. "Shouldn't I be asking you the same question? I'm fine, but you seem to have a lot on your mind."

"You could say that. A lot of things happened in a very short period of time today. I guess it's just taking me a while to process it all."

"...I am sorry for my poor performance in today's battle...I can only promise that I will do better next time." she may have known is was only wishful thinking, but Renamon had hoped that Rika wouldn't keep reminding her of her two horrible losses at the hands of the red dinosaur digimon.

"It's not that. What's done is done. We can't change the past, we can only learn from it." Rika decided not to mention that fact that there wouldn't be a "next time" with that particular set of opponents. At least, not until Renamon managed to reach Champion-level.

"...Is it the boy?" Renamon knew that the goggle-wearing male Tamer had gotten under Rika's skin. Hell, he had gotten under Renamon's as well, and she had a much longer fuse than Rika, so the kitsune could only imagine how angry he made the redhead.

"...There's no point in lying about it, so I'll admit that he is part of the problem...God, how I'd love to pound his face in..." a bit of her earlier snarl returned, but it quickly gave way to the blank expression she'd worn before. "But no, that's not why I asked if you were alright...Down in that parking lot, while we were in that van...I could have sworn that I saw blood coming out of your mouth..."

"..." Renamon didn't reply; she really couldn't. What could she say? She couldn't say that it did happen, since she was unconscious at the time. But she didn't want to say or imply that her Tamer was hallucinating, either.

Rika chuckled a bit. "You can tell me how crazy that sounds at anytime. You can't bleed...you're only data." she may have mumbled that last part under her breath, but she momentarily forgot about just how acute Renamon's hearing was.

Renamon had to make a conscious effort not to show any outward reaction to the near-inaudible comment. Even though she'd heard it before, that didn't lessen the sting that accompanied the words each and every time they were uttered. In fact, it only got worse each time around.

"Rika, dinner's ready!" Seiko's voice startled both occupants of the room, but only Rika showed any signs of it, having shot up to a sitting position.

"Coming, Grandma!" Rika called back as she got to her feet and smoothed out her shirt. She noticed that Renamon had already gone and had left the door open for her. "Only data." she murmured to herself as she left her room, closing the door behind her.

On the roof of the Nonaka household, Renamon sat and opened up her bag. Taking the contents out, the digimon sighed lightly and looked up, taking the time to admire the multitude of shimmering stars and the bright half-moon that cast a pale bluish-white light on everything below it.

"...'Only data'..." with no one around to see her, Renamon didn't bother to hold back the pained wince that resulted from those words. Brief flashes of how the other two Tamers interacted with their partners flashed through her mind, making her wish that she could have at least one moment like that with Rika. But these thoughts were banished just as quickly as they had come. She had chosen Rika because of the strength she possessed and because she had a personality very similar to her own. They were both cold, ruthless and efficient warriors, and that's what made them such a formidable team.

'I chose her, and she chose me...We're in this together, as partners. Backing out isn't an option, especially because of something so petty.' nodding to herself, Renamon took a bite of her sandwich.

Petty or not, she couldn't deny that it still hurt.

(Matsuki Residence)

LadyDevimon had made it back to her Tamer's home in record time and, after an impressive nosedive from over three-thousand feet in the air, she was now hovering a few inches off the balcony's surface. From what she knew of his habits, she figured Takato would have been asleep for around ten minutes by this time, and would most likely be awakened by her presence when she came in.

However, that didn't matter much, since he'd be out like a light again within two minutes. That being the case, LadyDevimon had no qualms about phasing through the glass door and the curtains to get into her Tamer's room.

Sure enough, as soon as she became solid again, the rhythm of Takato's breathing was broken by a sharp inhale and he turned over to look at who dared to intrude upon his personal space this late at night. Had he been more awake, he'd have jumped at the sight of LadyDevimon's face inches from his own, but in his current state he only managed a raised eyebrow.

"...Have fun?" the boy murmured with a yawn.

"Lots." the Ultimate said with a smile. "Now I know why Lillymon likes to watch you sleep sometimes. You're so cute when you're all tired!"

Takato just stared blankly at her, almost as if what she said hadn't registered at all. "...Lillymon watches me while I'm asleep?...She said she didn't do that anymore...Hm, creepy." with that, the Tamer turned over and went back to sleep.

LadyDevimon giggled and shook her head before devolving into BlackGatomon and climbing into bed with Takato. Hopping over his body, she slipped under his arm and curled up against his chest. With a low purr, she joined Takato in the land of dreams, though his dreams were far less "NC-17" than his digimon's.

(Morning - 7:19am)

"Takato!" Mie called from the bottom of the staircase leading to the second floor. She sighed when there was no reply after thirty seconds. It was always difficult to get her son to awaken in a timely manner, but it was especially hard on Mondays.

"Remember, hun, sound doesn't work on Mondays!" Takehiro reminded his wife.

Mie groaned, she didn't find Mondays particularly appealing, either, but she knew that lazing around only made the day seem to drag on even more.

"Need some help?" Lillymon giggled as her head poked around the corner at the top of the staircase.

"If you don't mind."

"Not at all!" Lillymon actually enjoyed waking Takato up. She loved that half-asleep, totally uncomprehending and partially startled look the boy gave her when he first awoke. It always took him a couple seconds to fully process what was going on, and then a couple more to realize why.

Making her way to his room, Lillymon lightly rapped on the door, even though she knew it was pointless. Like Takehiro said, sound was useless on Mondays. Only firm physical contact would work...His body hitting the floor, for example.

The Ultimate grinned as she slid open Takato's door and crept inside. She saw that Takato was sleeping on his side, his back to her, and he was on top of the bed sheets.

'Perfect.' Lillymon thought, a devious twinkle in her eyes.

Takato was quite confident in his place as Master of Pranks, and fancied himself "unprankable". Lillymon had been out to prove him wrong for weeks now, but had failed at every attempt. Even on Mondays, when Takato made the perfect target, something always happened to foil her plans. Whether it be Takato falling out of bed on his own, or Lillymon having to tail Calumon to keep him out of trouble, something always kept her from pranking Takato.

'But not today!'

The digimon inched closer, not making a single sound even though she knew she could make all the noise she wanted. But, just as she reached out to grab the sheets...

"Hiya!" BlackGatomon greeted as she hopped over Takato's sleeping form, effectively scaring the hell out of Lillymon.

One odd thing about this Lillymon was the fact that, when she was scared, she didn't scream, yelp, or scramble away. No, whenever something startled her in the way BlackGatomon had, her eyes would simply go wide, the color would drain from her face, and she'd faint.

"Um...Lillymon?" BlackGatomon waved her ungloved paw in front of Lillymon's face, but got absolutely no response as the flower digimon fell to the floor. "Uh-oh." the Champion peered over the edge of the bed, only to recoil as Lillymon shot up, fully conscious, with her Flower Cannon ready eliminate any threat.

"...Don't do that." Lillymon muttered, her hand shifting back to its original form.

"I'll try not to." BlackGatomon looked back at Takato, surprised that he had actually slept through that. She knew exactly what everyone else knew: sound was useless on Mondays. But she was still surprised nonetheless. "So, what's with the sneaking? A little morning molestation?" the feline's suggestive wink was accompanied by a devilish grin, displaying her small, but needle-sharp canines.

Lillymon blushed and mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" even BlackGatomon's keen ears didn't pick up anything but a couple syllables.

"I said, 'Is that what you were doing in here'."

"Of course not! I slept with him!" it was hard for BlackGatomon to keep a straight face when Lillymon's expression twisted into a combination of anger, embarrassment, and more than a little jealousy.

Lillymon took a few seconds to regain her composure before speaking again.

"Ha, ha. Very funny..." a proverbial light bulb clicked on over her head. "Speaking of funny, you want to help me with a little something?" BlackGatomon nodded eagerly, always willing to have a good time. Lillymon leaned over and whispered the plan into the smaller digimon's ear, even though she knew it wasn't required.

Both Lillymon and BlackGatomon looked at Takato with identical grins that promised humiliation for whomever was on the receiving end of what they were about to do. Takato's only response was a light snore.

It took the digimon all of two minutes to carefully wrap Takato in his bed sheets to make a sort of fabric cocoon that the boy would be hard-pressed to escape from. Then, once everything was in order, it was time to put their plan into action.

"Wait a minute." Lillymon suddenly paused and began stroking her chin as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Something's missing..."

"Now that you mention it..." BlackGatomon sat down next to Lillymon and adopted a similar "Thinking Pose".

After a full thirty seconds, "I've got it!" the cat digimon smiled and turned to Lillymon. "Witnesses! We need witnesses!" she quickly darted out of the room to round up Takato's parents and Calumon.

Two minutes later, the Champion returned with the last pieces of the puzzle, each one more confused than the last. It took only another thirty seconds to fill them all in, and it didn't take much to get them to agree to go along with it. Even Takato's own mother, usually the voice of reason in the house, grinned at the thought of her son's upcoming reaction.

Everyone silently took their positions around Takato's room; Takehiro by the balcony door with Calumon on his head, Mie next to the door, BlackGatomon on the bed at Takato's front, Lillymon in front of the bed facing Takato's back. The Ultimate counted down from four with her fingers, and as soon as she reached zero, she pointed at Takehiro.

Clearing his throat, Takehiro delivered his line with a slightly altered voice. "Alright, don't anybody move, this is a stick-up!" he shrugged sheepishly when everyone but Calumon gave him an odd look.

Without missing a beat, Mie, BlackGatomon and Lillymon unleashed loud, girlish screams and both female digimon jumped on top of Takato, causing him to awaken to the sounds of women screaming and a man yelling.

"Hey, I said nobody move!" Takehiro shouted in his new voice, one much deeper and far more gruff than his normal one.

Takato, instantly alarmed by his family screaming, and apparently being threatened by a strange man, immediately leapt into action...Well, "flopped" is probably a more appropriate word. Takato _tried_ to leap, but being constrained by the bed sheet cocoon caused him to do little more than feebly flop and squirm around until he fell out of his bed...Where he continued to flop and squirm in a useless attempt at getting out of his cotton prison and dishing out a merciless beating on the man who dared to enter his home and threaten his loved ones.

But, to those around him, the situation was far less serious, and far more hilarious. Each of them were fighting to keep control of themselves, but it was hard. Damn hard. Afterall, here was Takato, the self-proclaimed "Prankster Prince", wrapped up in his bed sheets and rolling and wriggling on the floor, looking for all the world like a giant, demon-possessed burrito.

Eventually, the thrashing and the muffled screams of rage and frustration got the better of them and they lost it.

Takato's struggles slowly lessened in intensity as he heard people laughing around him. It took him a full ten seconds to realize what had just happened. He also realized that there was a small hole at the top of his prison, through which a beam of sunlight was shining. Giving it an experimental poke, he found that it did give and widened enough to allow him to slip his right arm through up to the bicep.

The occupants of the room found themselves laughing even more as Takato's arm came out and started feeling around for a way to unwrap himself. He grabbed a hold of every crease he could find, but none of them budged when he tugged on them. With a frustrated growl, Takato pointed in the direction he assumed most of the laugher was coming from.

"I'll get you back for this!" though his voice was still muffled, it was easy to make out his words.

The laughed picked up again after he said that.

"What did that poster ever do to you?" Takehiro managed to get out before guffawing once again.

"Dad? Traitor!" Takato pointed in the direction his stepfather's voice came from.

"Who said I was ever on your side to begin with? I'm a neutral party." Takehiro said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sure you are, sweety." Mie giggled, patting her husband on the shoulder before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Mom? You too?"

"Of course! Do you know anyone else who can scream like me?" Mie was, indeed, quite good at screaming. In college, she had gotten both the Drama and Film clubs, and was often put in roles that required either terrified shrieks and keening wails of sorrow. As a result, she became known as the "Scream Queen", a title usually reserved for female Heavy Metal vocalists and horror-movie actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis.

"There's no one I can trust!" Takato lamented before dropping his arm to the floor with a sigh. "Can I at least get someone to help me out of this thing?" it was apparent, at least to Takato, that the only way he was getting out of the cocoon without outside assistance was to shred it. But he knew from prior experience that the sheets he was wrapped in were incredibly durable, and the strength required to rip through them was something was certain he didn't have.

"Count us out." Mie said, holding her hands up. "You two got him in there, so you two can get him out." with that, she took Takehiro's arm and dragged him out of the room, and Calumon along with him.

"Fine, I guess that means no school for me today. That's cool, means I can go back to sleep. Can someone hand me a pillow?" Takato suddenly found himself rolling as his cocoon was violently jerked, causing it to unravel and release him...right into his desk, causing a stack of papers near the edge to fall on him.

"I don't think so." Lillymon smiled. "I know you hate Mondays, but look on the bright side, Kazu and Kenta should be back today."

Takato sat up and rubbed his head, further messing up his already disheveled hair. He knew what happened when he missed school, his mother would force him to work the entire day, leaving him no time for anything else. So, not only would he be bored the entire day, should he skip school, but he would be too exhausted to do anything once his mother let him go.

"Fine, fine, I'll go." Takato got up and made his way out of the room, but stopped at the door and slowly turned to the two digimon in his room. "I'll get you back for that...Both of you...You won't know how, and you won't know when...Just know that I'll get you back." giving them a look that meant unpleasant things in the near future, Takato slowly stalked out of the room, down the hall and into the bathroom for his morning ritual.

When they heard the bathroom door close, BlackGatomon and Lillymon shared a look and gulped.

"You...might want to watch your back for a few days...or weeks." Lillymon warned, having personal experience with Takato's "vendettas". For the first few days, he would mess with your mind, seeming to appear out of thin air and silently stare at you as you moved about the room. Then he'd disappear again, only to reappear at random places and points of time. Sometimes he'd be sitting on the couch next to you, still staring; and other times he'd be outside and staring at you through a window. Then, after he got you good and freaked out, he'd seem to forget about the whole thing and go about his day like nothing had ever happened. He greeted you normally, smiled normally, and he didn't stare.

But this was only to lull you into a false sense of security. And, right when you thought you'd escaped, he would get you, swiftly and often horribly. Whether it be a trap set up somewhere in the house, or a "mishap" with a water hose, one thing was always constant: it was over just as quickly as it had begun, and it always left you wondering what the hell had just happened.

BlackGatomon nodded, having seen what Takato had put his friend, Kazu, through after the boy had replaced Takato's packed lunch with a bag of dog feces.

"Don't have to tell me twice." the feline digimon observed Lillymon as she started to pick up the papers that had fallen on the floor. 'She seems to enjoy what she does.' BlackGatomon thought, listening to the unfamiliar tune the Ultimate was humming as she working, occasionally pausing to giggle whenever she picked up a sheet of paper with something funny on it.

(With Takato)

It had taken Takato a total of twenty-two minutes to get himself ready for school, another three minutes to eat the weird breakfast wrap-thing that his stepfather had made, and he was now on his way to the playground with thirty-five minutes to spare before he was due at the Facility of Mental Torment, otherwise known as "School".(1)

Even with all that had happened over the weekend, Takato was still eager to see his friends again. Ever since Saturday, he'd also be quite curious about "The Plan" Kazu and Kenta had mentioned to Lillymon when they called. Sure, digimon were great and all, but there was simply no substitute for good, old-fashioned fun with your friends.

And with a friend like Kazu, that was especially true. Before you got caught, you were assured to have the time of your life when participating in his often poorly thought-out plans. Hell, sometimes half the fun was escaping after being found out.

When he finally made it to the Dome of Solitude, he climbed to the top of it and stuck his head through one of the many holes. But what he saw wasn't what he was expecting.

Normally, he'd either find Kazu and Kenta in the middle of a match, or Kazu gloating while Kenta grumbled about his presumably humiliating loss. But that wasn't the case on this Monday morning. This time, Takato found Kenta sitting completely still, looking for all the world like a voodoo zombie, and Kazu flinging cards at his bespectacled friend's head.

"Um...Do I want to know?" Takato said before dropping down beside Kazu..

"Dude, I don't even know." Kazu said, flinging another card and snickering a little as it bounced off of Kenta's forehead. "He's been like this since he left his house. Hasn't said a single word, hasn't reacted to my jokes, and he didn't even blink when I said I'd trade him my Machinedramon for his ExVeemon." Kenta also didn't blink when a card collided with the right lens of his glasses.

"...You figure he's possessed, or something?" Takato waved his hand in front of Kenta's face, but, of course, got no response. Oh well, at least he was still breathing.

"Possessed? By what, the spirit of a sloth? I thought people were supposed to go crazy when they were possessed...Look at him! I've seen more life out of my Uncle Shiro, and he sleeps, like, fifteen hours a day!" indeed, Shiro Shioda was a lazy bastard. Only thirty-seven years of age, yet he could possibly be mistaken for someone ninety-seven years old with the amount of energy he seemed to have. He only exerted any effort when it was truly necessary, and even then he'd try to procrastinate as much as possible.

"...Any ideas as to what happened to him?" Takato asked, taking a card from Kazu's deck to toss at Kenta. But, when he saw the card he picked, he had to raise an eyebrow. "Kazu, you don't have a Gatomon card, do you?" in the countless battles they'd had, Takato had never once seen his friend use a Gatomon.

Kazu shook his head. "Nope. These are Kenta's cards." he flung a Leomon card, which struck Kenta on the side of his head and fluttered down into the breast pocket of his unbuttoned grey flannel shirt.

Takato looked back and forth between Kazu and the card, then shrugged and launched the card horizontally with pinpoint accuracy, surprising even himself when one of the card's corners was caught between Kenta's lips.

"...Mmm, cardboard num-nums." Takato mimicked Kenta's voice.

Kazu nearly fell over, but managed to keep most of his laughter inside.

After a few minutes, Takato and Kazu had exhausted their supply of cards, and Kenta was still comatose. His light brown khakis were littered with his own cards, and the Gatomon card was still wedged between his lips, yet he made no move to clear any of the cards off or pick them up. His friends weren't even sure if he'd blinked at all.

"...Now what?" Takato asked, taking out his phone and taking a picture of Kenta.

"...See how much we can get away with?" Kazu suggested, the cogs within his mind already turning, nearly going into overdrive with all the things he and Takato could do.

Takato, usually the voice of reason in their group, saw absolutely no reason not to further torment his friend, knowing that he'd do the same thing if their roles were reversed.

And so, for the next twenty minutes, Kazu and Takato stockpiled enough blackmail material to have Kenta doing favors for them until he was thirty-five. They did everything they could think of; from styling Kenta's hair into demon horns, to giving him facial hair with a black marker. Of course, they each took pictures of it all, knowing that, when Kenta snapped out of his trance, the look on his face would be priceless.

At one point, Kazu thought it prudent to take one of Kenta's shoes off and put it on the green-haired teen's own head.

"...Why?" Takato asked, for what had to be the eighth time.

"Same reason as when you asked me five minutes ago: It's funny." Kazu said, while giving Kenta a second pair of eyebrows with an orange marker.

"...Should I be concerned about the fact that that's actually _not_ the most random thing you've ever done?" in fact, placing a shoe on Kenta's head hovered somewhere around the bottom of the top twenty-five most random things that Takato had seen Kazu do. It was more random than him coming to school in his pajamas, but less random than the time he broke out into a disco routine after beating Takato in a card match.

Kazu just gave Takato an odd look. "Yes, you should be concerned...Fear me, for I am spontaneous!"

Takato slowly leaned away from his friend. "...How about we just wake Kenta up so we can get to school?"

"That works...Wait, how are we gonna do that?" seriously, Kenta had remained thoroughly spaced out not matter what they did to him.

"It'll be easy, we just need...Ah!" Takato spied a brown, relatively large, slightly hairy spider crawling along the wall to his left. Placing his left hand in its path, Takato used his right hand to carefully herd the spider onto the hand in front of it.

"...I still don't understand how you can do that." Kazu shivered. He wasn't necessarily arachnophobic, he could deal with spiders and scorpions...As long as they were huge and slow. He hated the small, hairy ones that could disappear as soon as you blinked. Kazu had once held one of those, a common Brown Huntsman Spider, the same as Takato was now holding. Just like Takato's, the specimen Kazu had held was small as Huntsman went, only having a two inch leg span.

But, Kazu, being Kazu, found the spider a bit boring when it wouldn't move...So, he decided to gently tap one of the spider's back legs...It moved, alright. It moved faster than Kazu could follow and ran right into the sleeve of his shirt. Even after freaking out and most likely crushing the spider by rolling around on the ground, Kazu swore he could feel the spider creeping along his body every few minutes for the next two days.

"What? Just because you don't know how to handle them doesn't mean others don't." Takato was careful not to let his fingers make contact with the spider, knowing just how quick these arachnids could move when they wanted to.

"Hey, I know how to handle spiders just fine! Remember that reptile show we went to on that field trip a few months ago? I let them put seven tarantulas on me, SEVEN! AND I was holding another one!"

"Yeah, yeah. That was impressive, I'll admit...But I also remember what happened when they brought out that Giant Huntsman."

_Heteropoda maxima_, the Giant Huntsman...and mortal enemy of Hirokazu Shioda.

"A spider that big shouldn't be that quick." Kazu huffed.

"You should have known it would be fast just because it's a Huntsman. They're built for two purposes: hiding in incredibly tight spaces, and running down prey." Takato informed as he placed the spider on Kenta's light blue t-shirt.

"Well, that's awesome...One question: how is that supposed to wake him up?" Kazu asked as he stood up, brushed his tan khaki pants off and smoothed out his black shirt, which featured a stylized version of the Crest of Reliability.

"What do we do every other time we need Kenta to be awake when he's not?" Takato grinned, then clapped his hands together as hard as he could without hurting himself. "WAKEY, WAKEY!" his second clap was enough to make Kenta jump and look around frantically, which caused the shoe to fall off his head.

As the green and white sneaker fell to the ground, Kenta just stared at it, then brought his hand up to rub his head.

He then turned to look at his grinning friends. "W-?" looking down, he noticed the card sticking out of his mouth, and all of the cards scattered around him...HIS cards. Spitting the Gatomon card out, Kenta glared at the other two boys. "...Why?"

Takato shrugged. "I asked him the same thing...But you know Kazu. He's...Kazu." there was really no other way to describe the boy with the grey visor cap.

Puffing out his chest, Kazu adopted a classic "Superhero" pose. "That's right! I'm one of a kind, baby!"

"Thank God for small miracles, eh?" Kenta quipped, causing Takato to give him a shocked look before laughing.

"..." Kazu could only stare in bewilderment. Did Kenta Kitagawa just deliver a one-liner? Kenta? "...I see Chumley's been tutoring you. Oh well, joke's on you, anyhow..." with that ominous remark, Kazu picked up his backpack and leaned against the wall, watching Kenta with an odd smirk, as if he was waiting for something to happen...

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kenta rose an eyebrow.

"Look down." Takato said, barely able to hold in his laugher from just thinking about what was going to happen in just a couple seconds.

Following his friend's instructions, Kenta looked down, but saw nothing but an Angemon card on his lap. He was about to call Takato on his lame joke, but then he caught sight of what he assumed was a relatively large brown stain. But, upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a relatively large brown spider. And Kenta, being more than a little afraid of spiders, promptly freaked the hell out.

Almost twenty minutes after the three of them left the playground, the police showed up. They were responding to a call about a suspected murder reported by an elderly woman who had heard a terrible scream and thought the worst of it.

(End Of The Schoolday - 3:32pm)

For once, the "trio" of troublemakers walked down the slightly congested halls of their school at a subdued pace. No running, no pushing, no jumping over obstacles, no racing for the exit at all. They were just walking and talking with one another. Why, if you saw them, you'd mistake them for normal middle school kids!

"Wait a minute, why would a giant spider speak German? Why would it speak at all?"...You would mistake them for normal kids until you heard them speak to one another.

"Come on, Chumley, this one's easy! The spider was genetically engineered by Nazi scientists during World War II, and, as such, it needed to be highly intelligent and able to understand human speech, specifically German, if they were going to order it around." Kazu explained.

"...That still doesn't explain why it can speak." Kenta pointed out.

"It's like a parrot imitating words." Kazu shrugged.

"...Okay...But that doesn't explain _how_ in can talk...I mean come on! It's a spider, an animal which lacks vocal chords of any kind! In fact, only a few species of spider even make noise at all, and those are tarantulas that do it by rubbing hairs together. You got an explanation for a sixty foot tall spider that can say 'sieg heil' with no vocal chords?" Takato looked at Kazu as they reached the door.

"..." no, Kazu didn't have an answer for that one.

"No? Then sorry, but I'm gonna have to go with Kenta's gravity-defying purple ferret. Both of these things violate pretty much every natural law in existence, but at least the ferret makes some kind of sense." Takato pushed open one side of the double-door that led to the outside world.

"Hah! Finally, I've beaten the 'almighty' Kazu!" Kenta gloated as he pushed open the other side of the double-door. "Attention, World! I, Kenta Kitagawa, have finally bested the one known as Kirokazu Shioda!"

Oddly enough, some of the students that had gotten out of the school before them started to clap.

"What's the score now?" one of the students asked.

"For arguments, a hundred and seventy-seven to three." Kazu provided, causing the other students to snicker an Kenta to hang his head.

"...Why must you always ruin my moments?"

"Because, any time you win, it's always on a technicality." Kazu replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"...What? I beat you fair and square!" Kenta protested.

"You couldn't beat me by yourself, so you brought Takato into it to decide, knowing that he could poke holes in my theories in ways you couldn't."

"It was YOUR idea to go to him!"

"...Technicalities, I tell you!"

Takato shook his head. "You know, it's times like these that I can't tell if you're really that much of a self-righteous ego-maniac, or if you're just messing with us."

"Come on, 'Kato! If I was an ego-maniac, you wouldn't be hanging out with me, now would you?" Kazu grinned and put his arms around both of his friends' shoulders.

"That's true...So, you guys called on Saturday, saying something about 'The Plan'. What's the deal with that?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that!" Kazu then gave Takato an odd look and pulled the slightly taller boy closer. "When we called, that girl picked up the phone again...You never did tell us who she is...Got something to hide, Chumley?"

"Come to think of it, all you've told us about her is her name...'Lilac', or something weird like that. But, even with all the times we've been in your house, we've never seen her." Kenta added, giving Takato the same look as Kazu.

"It's 'Lilly'! And I told you that she always works in the back. The reason you haven't seen her is because you're not allowed in the back." after a particularly messy fiasco involving the creation of a birthday cake, both Kazu and Kenta were banned from the kitchen.

"Okay...How long has she been working at the bakery?" Kazu asked, switching to "Detective Mode".

"About four months." Takato replied.

"Uh-huh...And how long does she work for? The entire day?" receiving a nod, Kazu frowned a bit. "And how many times have you, Kenta and I hung out at your place all day, just playing games?"

"I don't know, my Mom usually makes me work if I don't leave the house."

"Take a guess, then."

"Fine. I'm thinking there's only been six times, in the last four months, that you guys have stayed over for more than three or four hours. This is, of course, not counting the sleepovers."

"Hm? Why not count the sleepovers?" Kenta asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why should I? Lilly's always long gone before you guys show up."

"Alright, so we've stayed over all day on at least six occasions in the time this 'Lilly' has been working at the bakery...Yet we've never seen her...EVER. What, she doesn't go to the bathroom, or anything? I figure we'd at least see her going up the stairs." Kazu narrowed his eyes as he looked at Takato accusingly.

"How would either of you ever know if she leaves the back or not? Most of the time, you're too wrapped up in a video game or a card match to even notice when _I_ leave or come in to a room!" Takato countered.

"...He's got a point." Kenta looked a Kazu, wondering if they'd keep the "interrogation" going or not.

"...Touché. Anyway, back to The Plan. I haven't worked out all of the details yet, but here's the basic idea. You know that mall that opened up a few months back? Well, I went down there a couple weeks ago, Mom's idea, and I found it was pretty boring down there. So, I thought we'd do a little...'public service', and liven things up a bit, if you catch my drift." Kazu let out a sinister chuckle, effectively dashing any and all hopes that he wasn't up to no-good.

"I don't know, Kazu...This sounds like something we could really get in trouble for...I mean serious trouble...Like, handcuffs and a trip to the station." Kenta didn't much like the idea of being caught by the authorities.

"...Sounds like fun." Takato said, surprising the hell out of both his friends.

"I...You...What?" came Kenta's witty reply.

"It really does sound like fun! I mean, it needs to be thought out more, but it sounds like it could be awesome!"

"See, Kenta? 'Kato knows a good idea when he hears it." Kazu grinned as Kenta snorted and rolled his eyes. "But yeah, I know there's a lot that needs to be done to make sure we don't get caught. So, I thought we could go down to the mall and, you know, scope the place out. Find all the exits, places to hide, see what kind of security the place has, that sort of thing."

"...Are we gonna rob the place, or something?" Takato asked, only to receive a swat to the head.

"No. We need to find the exits so we can escape. We need to find places to hide just in case we can't escape right away. And we need to find out how seriously the security guards take their job, which will tell us how long they're willing to chase us."

"Well, you're thorough, I'll give you that."

"Hey, this is gonna be big! If we're gonna do it, we need to make sure we do it right!" Kazu took his arms off of his friends' shoulders and walked ahead of them to think in relative peace.

This left Takato and Kenta to talk amongst themselves.

"...So, what're you gonna do when this whole thing blows up in our faces?" Kenta turned to Takato while using his right index finger to push his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"Don't you mean 'if'?" Takato asked as he began to crack his knuckles individually.

"No, I mean 'when'. Don't lie, you're thinking the same thing I am. You and I both know that this isn't going to end well, so I don't even know why you agreed to it...I don't even know why I agreed to it!" Kenta scratched his head. He honestly didn't know!

"I can hear you!" Kazu called from out in front.

"Really? Then you should have no problem hearing this: Your plan is crazy!"

"No crazier than the other stuff I come up with."

"...That's supposed to make me feel better?"

"No, I'm just saying that you're overreacting."

"Whatever, man. I know it's insane, and Takato knows it's insane. I don't know what's going on in his head that's making him go along with this, but the more I think about it, the less I want to do it." Kenta adjusted his glasses again. 'I told Mom these were too big!'

"My guess: what's going on in Takato's head right now is the same thing that's been going on in yours the entire time you've known me." Kazu shrugged.

Kenta looked at Takato. "So, that swirling mass of evil Kazu calls a mind has corrupted you as well?"

"Hm? No corruption going on in my head, I just want to have some fun. My weekend was pretty boring..." Takato's eye twitched a bit at the bold-faced lie. 'And the award for Lie of the Year goes to...'

"Yeah, I know how you feel. My weekend sucked. Say, Kenta, what'd you do while you were out of town?" Kazu turned to Kenta, prompting Takato to do the same.

"...Hey, Takato, do you think Henry would want to come along?" Kenta quickly changed the subject, not yet willing to talk about his weekend experiences.

Both Takato and Kazu noted the diversion, but said nothing about it.

"I don't think so. Even if I hadn't told him about Kazu, I think he'd be smart enough to know to stay away from him and his plots." Takato had introduced Henry to Kazu and Kenta during lunch, though he had been difficult to track down.

Being quite a loner, Henry didn't have any human friends within the school, so he'd just wander off, unnoticed by all, and go eat his lunch with Terriermon. Even though he packed his own lunch, he still went for the school food so he could give it to his digimon, who actually liked it. Why, Henry couldn't even begin to fathom, as it was a known fact that the cafeteria food was toxic if eaten in all but the smallest of doses. Every now and then, they'd import food that wasn't prepared by people who worked in the cafeteria, thus making it far less dangerous. But Terriermon could care less about whether the food was imported or not, he ate it regardless.

Both the digimon and his Tamer always ate far off to the side of the school's playground, hidden behind a tree to make sure they weren't seen or bothered. This was where Takato had found them and, after a few seconds of convincing, Henry agreed to finish his lunch with his newest friend.

Takato was actually surprised by how well his friends had taken to Henry. They expected them to at least be suspicious of the new guy, but they trusted him enough to know that he wouldn't bring anyone into the group that he wasn't cool with.

Unfortunately, a single lunch period wasn't nearly enough time for Henry to be truly welcomed into the group. That didn't happen until he challenged all three of them. He didn't have to win, he just had to prove that he could play. Fortunately for Henry, he'd already beaten Takato, who was normally the final challenge for anyone looking to join the group, so there really wasn't anything stopping him from joining. He'd wipe the floor with Kenta, no problem. As for Kazu...Despite his unpredictable personality, he was a creature of habit when he came to the card game, and often fell into patterns that grew easier and easier to counter as time went on. So, for a defensive and counter-focused player like Henry, all he had to do was hold out and wait for Kazu to fall into a pattern, then throw a proverbial monkey wrench into the gears.

"Now you're just exaggerating." Kazu huffed indignantly.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Takato chuckled.

"I sleep just fine."

"Like a rock."

"That's arguable...Do rocks tend to sound like bulldozers?" once again, it was Kenta who delivered the smartass remark.

"...You've created a monster." Kazu gave Takato a look of faux horror.

"Sure I did. Look, I don't think Henry will want any part of this, but I'll go find him and ask. Meet at that hobby shop down the street from Kazu's house in an hour?" Takato proposed.

"Sounds good to me, see ya' in an hour!" with that, Kazu walked off towards his place, all but dragging Kenta behind him.

Just as they turned the corner and disappeared from Takato's sight, his cell phone rang.

"Mom and Dad probably need help with a sudden rush." imagine Takato's surprise when it wasn't his home number that appeared on the outer LCD screen, but Henry's. Flipping the phone open, Takato was greeted by the sound of heavy panting. "Uh...Hello?"

_"Takato! Good...you've got...your phone...with you..." _

"Henry? What's up? Sounds like you're running."

_"That's because...I am!...I believe I'm...in need of...some assistance..."_

_"What you're in need of is longer legs! Run faster, it's gaining on us!"_ at least Takato didn't have to ask if Terriermon was present.

"What is it, a digimon?" it was sort of a dumb question, as there wasn't much else it could be if Henry was not only running from it, but calling Takato for help.

_"Well...not yet...right now, we're...being chased...by a Digital Field!" _

Well, that was a new one. "Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can! I've just got to get Guilmon and-...Wait, where are you, anyway?" Takato paused in mid-stride, realizing that he had no idea where to find Henry.

_"I don't know...Neither of us...has really...been paying attention...to the street signs..."_

"Then how am I supposed to fi-!" Takato was forced to jump back, lest he be bulldozed by Henry, who had just turned the corner and full speed. "Henry!"

"Look up!" Henry shouted back as Terriermon used one of his ears to point in the direction of the threat.

Following both of their instructions, Takato looked into the sky and, sure enough, there was an SUV-sized "cloud" easily matching Henry's pace as it chased after him and his partner.

"Great, just great!" Takato groaned, then dashed off towards the park. As he ran, his phone rang again, and this time it was a call from home. "Now's kind of a bad time." Takato said, believing the person on the other side to be his mother.

_"Ah, so I guess you already know about the digimon."_ it was BlackGatomon.

"You could say that...It's just a Digital Field right now...but it's chasing after Henry!"

_"Hm, can't say I've ever heard of that before. Oh well, guess you'd better get to Guilmon fast, in that case."_

"Why can't you help out?" Takato got the distinct impression that BlackGatomon had just shrugged.

_"This one is far too weak for me to even bother with. Besides, you and Guilmon need all the training you can get, and neither of you will get any if I get involved."_

"'Training'?"

_"Don't play dumb. Guilmon needs to get stronger and learn how to obey orders better before you two can work as a cohesive unit. You need more experience as a Tamer before you can fully control Guilmon. If I get involved, Guilmon gets nothing, and it'll be over long before you get a chance to use any cards or issue any orders. So, I advise you to get that wonderful butt of yours in gear and go help your friend! See ya' when you get home. Ciao!" _BlackGatomon hung up after a small giggle.

BlackGatomon's comment had caused Takato to falter in his stride, leading to him trip over his own feet and do a world-class faceplant right into the side of a parked sedan.

"...Oww..." it took Takato a few seconds to regain the ability to stand.

"You alright, kid?" a man in a grey business suit asked as he helped Takato steady himself.

"Yeah...Ow...Yeah, I'll live." surprisingly, aside from a small bump on his forehead and a massive headache, Takato suffered no injuries from his violent crash. Looking at the man who helped up, Takato was surprised to find that the "man" didn't appear to be that much older than him, early twenties at the most. From the sound of his voice, Takato was expecting someone far older.

But, while the man didn't appear to be that old, he gave the impression that he was. Takato also got the feeling that there was something not quite right about the man. He wore a grey suit with a white shirt under it and a black tie. Nothing odd there. Grey slacks, nothing out of the ordinary. Dark brown briefcase, nope, still nothing.

'Wait, black boots?' now that was weird. Why would someone that looks like they have a high-paying office job be wearing heavy-duty boots? 'I'm sure he has his reasons.' Takato thought, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.

Looking up to the man's face, Takato found something else that seemed out of place: grey hair. But not the senior citizen kind of grey, more of a storm cloud grey. His face was free of facial hair, but he did appear to have what looked like a small scar, perhaps left from a razor, on his right cheek. The sunglasses prevented Takato from seeing his eyes, but just from looking into those black lenses, he felt that he didn't want to.

The man rose a grey eyebrow when the boy almost seemed to shy away from him. "You sure you're alright? That was a pretty nasty hit."

"I...I've had worse." Takato laughed nervously and pointed at his goggles, which had, remarkably, survived the crash unscathed. "These aren't just for show."

"Snowboarding?" receiving a nod, the man laughed. "I've got a brother that's into extreme sports as well. If you're anything like him, I suppose you've taken more than a few bumps and bruises along the way."

His apprehension growing by the second, Takato thought it wise to get out of this man's presence as quickly as possible.

"Thanks for helping me, but I'm fine, really...I've really gotta get going, I'm meeting some friends in a few minutes and I can't be late..." technically, it wasn't a lie, since he didn't have long before the Digital Field caught up with Henry and Terriermon.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry about that. If you're really okay, run along...Don't want to be responsible for you missing out on anything."

With a quick bow, Takato ran off towards the park, moving even faster than before.

The man simply shrugged and adjusted his tie, then picked up his briefcase and started off down the sidewalk to his original destination. But, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at the blue Lancer the boy had crashed into. He found that there was a fairly large dent in the passenger-side front door. If the boy made a dent that size, he shouldn't have been able to just get up and walk away, let alone run.

"Hmm..."

XXXX

A bit of a cliffhanger, but so what.

Like I said, no action in this one, but that'll be taken care of in chapter seven.

Some of you may notice that I've made some changes to Kenta's wardrobe; his overshirt isn't grey and doesn't have a flannel pattern, and his t-shirt is orange, not blue. Also, his shoes aren't green and white in the anime, they're more turquoise and white...Too..._girly_ for my tastes. I've also made another change, which I'll be making for all characters as needed...Pants that actually fit! No more of those ridiculous high-waters. Either you wear shorts, or you wear pants, I fail to see the point of the kind of pants Takato, Kazu and Kenta wore in-canon.

Not much else to talk about, that I can think of. But, if I missed something, feel free to tell me in your reviews.

(1) From what I've been able to find, a typical schoolday for Japanese Junior High/Middle School kids is from 8:30am to 3:30pm(I think it's actually 3:34, or something odd like that). Just trying to make things a little more authentic.

On one final note, Tamer of the Night should be updated by next week, since it's chapters are shorter than either of my other stories. But, as usual, I make no promises.

Jason Out!


	7. Never A Dull Day

Hello my friends, how have you been? I know it's been an obscenely long time, but I have returned to add another chapter to my second most popular story. My second favorite, too. I can't really cut loose like I do with Black Flames, but I still love writing this one. I'm also working on a complete rewrite of Tamer of the Night, but that won't be ready for a while.

To make up for the long absence, I've made this chapter long as hell and I tried to put a little of everything in it. Of course, it's more heavy on the humor than anything, but hopefully that means you guys and gals will have a good time reading it.

Well, let's get on with it, shall we?

XXXX

(Meanwhile)

"Doesn't this...thing ever give up?" Henry panted as he continued to run through the streets of Shinjuku.

"Well, maybe we'd lose it if you didn't RUN IN A STRAIGHT LINE!" Terriermon yelled right in his Tamer's ear, causing the boy to falter a bit.

Indeed, Henry had mostly been running straight down the streets, not bothering with alleyways and other detours.

"I told you...I don't...know this area...very well!...What if...we run...into a dead end?" while he didn't know the area very well, every neighborhood had at least one alley that didn't go anywhere...

At least, according to horror movies. And right now, Henry had every reason to put stock in movies, as another classic horror scenario was taking place at that very moment. The normally bustling streets were nearly devoid of all life, and the people that were around were outright ignoring the boy as he barreled passed them(1). They also didn't bother to look up; another horror movie staple.

"Then we'll stand and fight! Come on! At least _try_ to get this thing off our tails!"

Henry wondered when his partner had become "Mr. Courageous", but couldn't argue with him, given the situation. The Digital Field didn't seem to be entertaining the idea of giving up and going home, and the adrenaline that had kept him going full-tilt for so long was finally starting to wear off. His only choice was to try and outmaneuver and/or outsmart the pursuer.

Terriermon nearly fell off of Henry's shoulder as the boy suddenly turned and dashed into a nearby construction yard.

This proved to be a terrible decision.

"Henry!" Terriermon smacked his Tamer on the back of the head with one of his oversized ears.

"What? YOU told me to try a detour!" Henry came to a stop and looked around with a groan.

The construction site was completely fenced off on three sides, and all potential, not-obvious hiding spots were behind the fences. Now they were trapped and at the mercy of the Digital Field, and whatever would emerge from it.

The dog digimon leapt off of Henry's shoulder and turned to face the Digital Field as it settled over the site. It expanded rapidly to cover the entire area in a dense fog, further ensuring that there would be no escape.

"Fine, we're not afraid of you!" Terriermon yelled into the fog. "Take your best shot!"

Henry wiped the sweat from his forehead and pulled out his D-Arc. If this thing put so much effort into chasing them, it was unlikely that it just wanted to chat.

'Come on, Takato. We could really use some help here!' even though he had no idea what was coming, but something told him that Terriermon might not have be able to handle it on his own. At least, not without digivolving, and Henry wasn't about to let that happen again.

(With Takato)

'Man, my head is killing me...' Takato thought as he ran up the stairs towards the "hidden" shed atop the hill.

Sure, the hit hadn't rattled his brain nearly as much as it probably should've, but that didn't mean it felt good. Takato had once heard his dad talking about a hangover, and from his description, it seemed very similar to the possible concussion the boy was currently suffering. He felt dizzy and nauseous, and every single sound seemed to be amplified tenfold. This included his own pulse pounding in his ears, each throb making his head feel like it was being inflated with an air pump.

But Takato kept running. He wasn't going to let a headache, no matter how terrible, stop him from helping a friend in need.

Just as he neared the top of the stairs, a red, black and white blur burst from the bushes beside Takato.

"Guilmon!" the boy called out as the digimon shot passed him.

The miniature dragon dug his claws into the ground and used his momentum to swing his body around a full one-hundred and eighty degrees to face his Tamer. Though it was obvious that he was raring to go, Guilmon waiting obediently for Takato to catch up to him.

As the "novice" Tamer ran up to his partner, he found his thoughts shifting from saving his newfound friend, to how Guilmon's previous maneuver could be used in combat. Normally, that would've sent up red flags, but for now it was just brushed aside for things relevant to the task at hand.

'Crap, I've got no idea where Henry is right now! Maybe I should call him...' Takato shook his head, deciding that calling would be a bad idea. There was no guarantee that Henry would even answer his phone, and if he'd actually managed to hide, the phone ringing would likely give him away.

If he had actually reached for his phone, he would've found that it was no longer in his possession.

While he was pondering the next course of action, a process that was made painfully slow by his splitting headache, Guilmon was getting more antsy by the second.

Eventually, his low growling got Takato's attention. "Well, I've got nothing. Lead the way."

The digimon wasted no time, shooting off down the hill with his Tamer keeping pace with unexpected ease, considering he'd had virtually no time to recover after having sprinted for nearly two miles non-stop.

(With Henry)

'Come on, where are you?' Henry thought as he scanned the area around him.

He knew the digimon had come through, as the bright flash of pale red light was always a sure sign. However, this one didn't seem to be in a hurry to reveal itself.

"Terriermon, can you tell where it is?"

"I don't have ESP, y'know." the lop-eared digimon replied as he looked for any sign of the enemy.

"You can sense other digimon just fine any other time!" Henry pointed out.

"When we're _outside_ of a Digital Field, sure; but now that we're _inside_ of one, I can't sense anything!"

"Wonderful." Henry muttered and started going through his card deck for anything that would aid in his current situation.

Then Terriermon's ears perked up as he heard an all too familiar sound coming from above and to his left.

'Oh no, not this guy again.' Terriermon thought, then leapt to the right just as a large beam of purple energy impacted the ground where he'd been, throwing up a cloud of pulverized concrete.

**"Terriermon..." **the mystery digimon growled as it stalked out from within the slowly clearing fog.

It was a massive, white-furred ape, though it looked more like a yeti than any known primate. Standing at least eight feet tall, and rippling with muscle, it would've been more than an intimidating sight even without having a biomechanical cannon for a right arm.

"...Gorillamon..." from the look on his face and the tone of his voice, one would never have guessed that Henry was someone who dealt with digimon on a daily basis.

The digimon in question turned his head to level a glare on the human boy. His icy blue eyes then widened in recognition, before narrowing in rage. Gorillamon then slowly raised his right arm in the blue-haired boy's direction.

Seeing this, Terriermon acted quickly to bring the irate ape's attention back to himself.

"Hi, Gorillamon, it's been a long time." the lop-eared digimon called. "Now that you're here again, there's a question I've wanted to ask you for a while..." he smirked when he saw Gorillamon's eyes turn to him. "How did it feel to be Champion-level Rookie Fodder?(2)"

Gorillamon's entire body tensed, then, in the space of just two seconds, he grabbed a twelve-foot I-beam and tossed it at Terriermon like a javelin. The Rookie managed to jump away just before the projectile hit and buried itself a good two feet into the ground.

'We've got problems.' Henry thought, not at all surprised by Gorillamon's strength. In fact, that power was the reason he had skipped the Beast-type over when he started playing the game that would eventually lead to him becoming a Tamer.

His exact words had been, "Anyone can win with a big digimon", and they were coming back to bite him in the ass. Gorillamon's power, and his position, put him at a major advantage right off the bat. There were quite a lot of I-beams up on that foundation, which would allow the ape to attack from a distance and hardly waste any of his energy. If he was smart enough, he could tire Terriermon out by forcing him to duck and dodge, then move in for the kill once the Rookie was good and exhausted.

'We've got to get him down from there.' as soon as Gorillamon had made his presence known, Henry knew that there was no chance of a non-violent encounter.

Gorillamon was out for blood.

Now the question wasn't to fight or not to fight; it was _how_ to fight. The first order of business was to get him away from those I-beams, and Henry saw only two ways of going about it. Either he could have Terriermon tick Gorillamon off so much that he forgot about the potential weapons; or he could use a digimon card to equip the dog/rabbit with an attack powerful enough to blow the whole foundation up.

'If I'm going to fight, the least I can do is keep collateral damage to a minimum.' Henry thought. "Terriermon!"

"Yeah?"

"Make him mad."

Terriermon opened his mouth to deliver a smartass retort, but had to abort in favor of dodging another huge chunk of steel.

"Well, maddER..." Henry corrected himself.

"...Gotcha!" Terriermon shrugged, not knowing what his Tamer had planned, but trusting him nonetheless. "Ooh, somebody's angry!" he taunted the bigfoot-esque beast. "I would be, too, if I had gotten owned by a Rookie with one shot!"

With a roar that would make King Kong proud(3), Gorillamon fired his Energy Cannon at the annoying runt of a digimon, producing a beam much larger than normal.

Seeing that Terriermon had just barely gotten out of the way, Henry slashed Speed Plug-In B through his D-Arc, giving his friend the ability to run circles around the big brute.

And Terriermon did just that, darting and zipping around Gorillamon's blasts, and taunting all the while.

"Come on, big guy! I've met Numemon with better reflexes!" Terriermon laughed when another I-beam landed a good ten feet behind him as he ran at speeds he could never even dream of naturally with his stubby little legs.

"Huh...So _this_ is what it's like when he's actually _trying_ to be irritating..." Henry sweatdropped as he watched his partner dashed about, giggling like he'd just pulled off an awesome prank.

The boy's mind was brought back to the time when Terriermon had drank eight cans of soda and had nearly wrecked the apartment he and his family lived in. After nearly an hour of "Tom & Jerry"-like antics, Henry finally caught the digimon after he had knocked himself out by running into a wall.

Henry's lips pulled upward in a small smile before he was startled by his phone suddenly ringing. Looking at the number, he sighed in relief when he recognized it as Takato's.

"Boy, Takato, am I glad to hear from you."

_"Sorry, right phone, wrong guy." _a voice that was most definitely not Takato's answered.

"...Takato, now really isn't the time for games..." Henry said, somewhat irritated that his new friend apparently thought it would be funny to do his voice impersonation thing at a time like this.

_"Heheh, there's _always_ time for games, kid. But like I said, I ain't Takato. Your friend dropped his phone not too long ago, and probably hasn't even noticed yet."_

"...Then who are you, if you're not Takato?"

_"If I wanted you to know that, I would've told you already." _the man said, his tone reminiscent of an adult trying to explain something to a toddler.

"Right...I'm hanging up now."

_"Suit yourself. I was just calling to tell you that you'll have to hold out on your own for another few minutes. Shouldn't be too hard, but a lot can happen in a few minutes..."_

Henry's eyes widened and he started looking around. "You're watching me." it was a statement, not a question.

_"Just doin' my job, kid. Personally, I think you can take Donkey Kong's pissed off cousin all by yourself, but whatever. Be seein' ya', Wong. Look up, and think fast."_ the line went dead.

Raising an eyebrow, Henry did as instructed and looked up. The second eyebrow joined the first when he saw a small, rectangular object falling from the sky directly above him. Now, while most people would've simply stepped out of the way, Henry had a strong hunch as to what the object was, and didn't want it to hit the ground. So, with reflexes honed through more than half a decade of martial arts training(4), Henry snatched the object out of the air once it was within arm's reach.

'Yep, it's Takato's phone.' Henry thought as he looked at the red and black device. Looking up once again, he swore that he saw the silhouette of a person standing on top of the huge crane that was parked on the other side of the construction site. But the figure disappeared in the blink of an eye, literally.

On the battlefield, neither of the digimon took any notice of the boy's conversation. Terriermon was having way too much fun, and Gorillamon was far too focused on either crushing or blasting him, whichever came first.

"Hey, tell me if this looks familiar. Bunny Blast!" still running around at a fantastic pace, Terriermon fired a stream of small green energy pellets right into Gorillamon's face, momentarily blinding him.

Indeed, that did look familiar to the larger monster. That same attack was the last thing he'd seen before being deleted. When the human had deliberately passed him by, calling him "boring" to boot, Gorillamon had made it his personal mission to hunt down the boy's chosen partner and annihilate it. He had already been mad enough back then, but his rage increased tenfold once he was reborn and remembered exactly what had happened to him.

Even though he'd gone through all that trouble to ambush the runt, he had still been defeated; with a SINGLE ATTACK no less! That would not go unanswered. Both the runt and the human would pay for what they had done.

Seeing that the attack had little effect on the giant ape, Terriermon began to worry just a bit. The last time they'd "fought", a single Bunny Blast was all it had taken to put Gorillamon away. Now, it seemed as though it amounted to little more than a slap to the face.

Apparently, Gorillamon had gotten a lot stronger since their last encounter, and that was a problem. Terriermon really hadn't gotten that much stronger at all. He had bio-emerged a mere three days after that event, and hadn't really fought another digimon ever since, let alone absorbed any data. Unless you counted his rampage as Gargomon, where he, thankfully, hadn't deleted anyone and hadn't gotten any stronger.

"Henry, I'm gonna need some help here!" Terriermon said, but didn't get a response. "Henry?" he looked back and nearly fell over when he saw his Tamer seemingly watching clouds.

Gorillamon saw this, too, and grinned as he thought up a plan. He picked up another I-beam, while simultaneously charging his cannon for another shot. His movements were deliberately slow, giving Terriermon ample time to look back around to see what he was doing.

Terriermon paused. While Gorillamon was looking at him, and grinning maliciously, the Beast-type didn't appear to be aiming at him. The dog/rabbit then paled when he saw Gorillamon's eyes dart to something behind him. More accurately: some_one_ behind him.

"HENRY!" Terriermon screamed as the ape let the piece of steel fly. He instinctively ran forward to protect his Tamer, and that was the only thing that saved him from taking a direct hit from Gorillamon's Energy Cannon attack. But he was still sent tumbling by the shockwave resulting from the beam hitting the ground. Thus he could only watch helplessly as the metal spear rapidly closed the gap between itself and its soft, fleshy target.

Said target finally took his eyes off of the crane just in time to see an I-beam above five feet away from him and getting closer with every millisecond. There was no time to dodge; only time to regret. But Henry did take some small comfort in the fact that death would likely be instantaneous, and thus painless.

The next thing he knew, he was being lifted off his feet by something ramming into him from his left. There was a loud 'bang', almost like a gunshot, and he was on the ground again, on his side, with whatever had hit him keeping him pinned down.

"Having fun?" a familiar voice asked.

"Takato...Nice to see your impeccable timing goes beyond telling jokes." Henry said, releasing a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding.

"Thank Guilmon. I'd probably be on the other side of town right now if not for his nose." Takato replied as he got to his feet and held out a hand to his friend.

Gorillamon scowled when he saw another human enter the fray. He should've just blasted the blue-haired one when he had the chance! But no, he had to allow himself to be distracted by that damned long-eared rodent!

Speaking of Terriermon, he had gotten back to his feet and was staring at his Tamer with relieved eyes, thanking Takato over and over again in his mind. In exchange for saving Henry's life, he would let the whole "Pwincess Pwettypants" thing slide..._This time_.

Terriermon's ears perked up again as he heard the high-pitched whine of Gorillamon's cannon charging up. He whirled around and fired a Bunny Blast right into the ape's chest. Of course, it didn't do much in the way of damage; it wasn't meant to. It kept Gorillamon from obliterating Henry and Takato, but it looked like Terriermon would now suffer that same fate. The card Henry had used had worn off, and the dog/rabbit was still a little dizzy from the last attack he'd taken.

Fortunately, Takato wasn't the only one with excellent timing.

Gorillamon howled in pain as a large red ball of burning energy collided with his back and exploded, toppling him off of the raised foundation he'd been standing on. Now, Gorillamon was NOT among the acrobatic and agile primate-based digimon, like Apemon or Makuramon. He was built for power and durability, so he had little hope of righting himself mid-fall, even if he had recovered from the shock of the surprise attack.

That said, Gorillamon landed with an almighty faceplant that Terriermon, Henry and Takato could actually _feel_ through the ground.

"Ouch." Terriermon winced. It hurt when he fell off of Henry's bed, so he could only imagine what a fall from that height, onto concrete, would feel.

"So, Henry, that's the first time I've seen a digimon deliberately try to kill a human. Something I should know about?" Takato asked as he brushed the dirt and powdered concrete off of his clothes.

"I know him, in a way. Remember how I got Terriermon? Well, that Gorillamon was one of his opponents in the game. Terriermon beat him and absorbed his data, but..." Henry trailed off, drawing a blank on just how to explain Gorillamon's continued existence.

"I guess he didn't absorb enough. Looks like he'll get a second chance, though."

Henry sighed heavily. "I was afraid you'd say something like that."

"Well, he _did_ just try to flatten you..." Takato trailed off as he eyed the I-beam that had nearly done his friend in, stuck in the ground like all the others Gorillamon had thrown.

"I know that!" Henry snapped, and immediately regretted it. "Sorry, I just...don't know what to do right now."

Back on the battlefield, Gorillamon was stirring.

"Guilmon, he's moving!" Terriermon shouted, readying himself for another round.

The white ape pushed himself up with his arms, an expression of absolute fury adorning his face. A face which had another painful meeting with the ground when something quite heavy landed on his back.

That "something" was Guilmon, who had a Pyro Sphere ready to go and aimed at the back of Gorillamon's head. But, this time he held off on the attack, awaiting the order to execute the enemy.

However, that pause in the action allowed Gorillamon to get his bearings. With both arms out to his sides, like he was about to do pushups, he charged his cannon and fired a shot directly into the ground. Unable to bore through the concrete and earth, the beam instead pushed Gorillamon up and to the left, causing him to spin rapidly and throw the red mini-dragon off his back.

Surprisingly, Gorillamon landed on his feet. Unsurprisingly, Guilmon landed on his back.

"Guilmon, are you alright?" Terriermon asked as he ran up to his fellow digimon.

The crimson reptilian hopped to his feet and gave a small nod in response, never taking his eyes off of tall, white and hairy(5).

Gorillamon glared right back, silently evaluating his chances of winning against two opponents. Conclusion: the red one would be a major problem. Not only was it unnaturally powerful for a Rookie, but he could sense that it was also a Virus. Even so, he was fairly certain that it would only take one direct hit each from his Energy Cannon to delete them. Then he could punish the humans unopposed!

But it was the humans themselves that Gorillamon hadn't factored in, and that would prove to be his downfall. Again.

"Guilmon, we're sitting this one out." Takato called, drawing weird looks from all but the opposition.

"What?" Henry turned to the brown-haired boy with a raised eyebrow.

"I figure this is about as personal as a digimon battle can get. It's your fight, you finish it." Takato said, then whistled to draw Guilmon's attention.

Said digimon turned to his Tamer, then gave Gorillamon one last scathing look before padding over to Takato.

As "Big Red" left the battlefield, Terriermon gulped; he did NOT like the implications of the grin on Gorillamon's face.

"Uh, Takato...?" Henry didn't like that grin either, but wasn't any more keen on the idea of destroying another sentient being.

"If it looks like you're losing too badly, we'll jump in again. But, after how you demolished me, you should be able to take this clown in your sleep." Takato assured his friend.

"This isn't a game!" Henry insisted.

"You don't think I know that? Lives are on the line here, and that's exactly why I'm staying out of this."

"Yeah, that makes sense..."

Takato rolled his eyes at the sarcastic comment. "Listen, I need to know that I can rely on you to do what needs to be done. If you can't even finish off a digimon that actually tried to kill you, then how can I expect you to come through in later battles? I won't always be there to take up the slack, you know. There will be points where I might need you to take up MY slack."

Henry opened his mouth to reply, but quickly closed it as he thought about Takato's words. They had already talked about partnering up to neutralize all threats that came through from the Digital World. And though that included trying to convince the digimon to go back to where they came from, they both foresaw it as mostly fighting to protect their friends, families and homes. Sure, not all digimon were bad, but they certainly weren't all good either.

Terriermon himself had told Henry that the Digital World was a place ruled by Darwinism, for the most part. As a general rule, the strong survived, and the weak perished. The lop-eared digimon had frequently overheard other digimon talking about coming to the Human World, and few of them had anything but evil intentions. Some wanted to go just to see what all the fuss was about, and others simply wanted to get away from the harsh conditions of the Digital World. But most saw humans as easy pickings, and wished to conquer their world.

Henry didn't want to believe his partner. Until today, he had never met a digimon that had any ill intentions. Of course, Rika and Renamon usually destroyed them before their true intentions could be revealed, but Henry and Terriermon had managed to make some digimon turn back. This was usually accomplished by telling them about Rika's quest to destroy all digital beings that weren't named "Renamon".

A couple laughed at the prospect of a mere Rookie being that much of a threat. That is, until Henry whipped out the list of all the digimon that "mere Rookie" had slain with the help of her human partner. Yes, Henry had a list.

And thinking of Rika brought forth a scary concept: what if a digimon came through that had the same attitude as her? A ruthless digimon that saw both humans and its own kind as nothing but stepping stones on its path to greatness?

That settled it.

"Alright." Henry sighed, sounding like someone three times his age. "If there's no other choice..." he shuffled through his deck with speed and precision akin to a Las Vegas poker dealer, searching for a card combination that would allow him to end the battle quickly.

Just because he had resolved to fight, didn't mean he had to drag it out.

To his left, Takato just smirked, taking pride in the fact that his little "pep talk" had worked.

'Got most of it from an anime, but he doesn't need to know that(6).' Takato thought with a mental shrug.

It took Henry all of two seconds to find the right cards, and he immediately slashed them through his D-Arc.

"Speed Plug-In H, Power Plug-In C...Terriermon, take him out." the blue-haired Tai Chi student said, a look of grim determination set on his face as if carved into stone.

"Will do!" despite the seemingly chipper response, Terriermon's expression was far from happy. Gorillamon had tried to kill his best friend, and that would NOT go unpunished.

Before Gorillamon could react, Terriermon launched a salvo of green energy pellets right at his eyes, intentionally toning down the power in order to simply blind the ape.

Roaring in pain, Gorillamon's left hand immediately went to his face and he sent a blast from his cannon in his enemy's general direction. Of course, he hit nothing, but the lack of a follow-up attack on Terriermon's part led him to believe otherwise.

Feeling that his sight had recovered well enough, Gorillamon peered through his fingers, hoping to see a cloud of data ripe for the taking. Instead, he saw cracked concrete and smoke. Suddenly, an intense pain erupted from the back of his right leg, just above his knee, causing the leg to buckle.

Now momentarily crippled, Gorillamon had no hope of avoiding Terriermon's "Terrier Tornado", and was lifted over fifty feet in the air by the green twister. While the attack itself was more disorienting than damaging, the crash back to the ground wasn't exactly pleasant.

For a few seconds, Gorillamon just laid there inside the crater his impact had made. His head was killing him, and the edges of his vision began to darken. He was done for, and he knew it. But that didn't lessen the sting of humiliation.

_"How did it feel to be Champion-level Rookie Fodder?"_ Terriermon's words echoed through Gorillamon's mind, sparking his rage and demanding that he get up and destroy the worthless runt of a digimon.

**"No..." **Gorillamon growled, speaking for only the second time since his appearance.

Terriermon watched the Beast-type with narrowed eyes as the primate sat up and glared hellfire at him. He knew what was going to happen next, and knew what he had to do. But that didn't mean he wanted to, despite Gorillamon's actions.

**"You...You're nothing! Without that **_**human**_**, you're just a pathetic little runt!" **the ape growled as he struggled to force his battered body to move.

"Pathetic? Pfft, says the guy sitting in the crater, looking like he went ten rounds with a Togemon." Terriermon taunted with a small smirk.

**"Like you did this under your own power..." **Gorillamon grunted in pain as he pushed himself to his feet, swaying like a drunkard about to pass out. **"I can't think of anything more pathetic than a digimon who can't fight on his own."**

"How about a digimon who hides behind excuses to avoid admitting that he's just weak?"

Gorillamon just grinned. **"Says the one who hides behind a **_**human**_** for protection from those with REAL power."**

"'Real power', eh? Looks like it's overrated if it can't even stand up to little ol' me."

**"You got lucky today, runt, and so did your worthless **_**human**_**. Next time, I will crush the both of you! And trust me, there **_**will**_** be a next time."** Gorillamon laughed, ignoring the pain it caused to his damaged midsection.

"No, there won't." Henry said, causing Terriermon's ears to perk up.

"Goodbye, Gorillamon." Tamer and digimon said in tandem before Terriermon prepared his final attack.

Realizing what was going to happen, Gorillamon brought his cannon arm up and charged his last bits of energy into it. He had one shot left, and he was determined to make it count. With a sadistic smile, he trained the cannon on the human that had caused him such trouble.

**"I'll make you suffer, one way or ano-!" **Gorillamon never finished his exclamation, as a green, grapefruit-sized ball of condensed energy blew away his entire head(7).

Henry turned away from the sight of the ape's headless body, still standing and spewing out data like a fountain from the stump of its neck(8). Even Takato closed his eyes, and didn't open them until the body had exploded into a data cloud and was absorbed by Terriermon.

"Y'know, I think Rika might be some kind of serial killer, or something..." Takato said as he watched the fog from the digital field completely vanish.

"Eh?" Henry scratched his head.

"If she can do stuff like _THAT_ on a regular basis, and not think anything of it...Something's just not right." Takato looked around conspiratorially, then leaned in to whisper to his friend, "And just between you and me, I heard her talking to herself while we were down in that parking garage. She was discussing ways to kill me!"

"...It scares me that I can't think of a reason NOT to believe you..." Henry deadpanned.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think Rika wants to kill me, too." Terriermon said as he climbed up onto Henry's shoulder.

"You're a digimon, _of course_ she wants to kill you." Takato said. "And no, it doesn't make me feel better. In fact, I think I'm gonna hold off on sleeping for a while...I doubt locked doors and windows would save me from that Renamon of hers."

"Funny that you think of that _after_ you've gone and ticked her off." Henry said with a small chuckle.

"Oh har, har, let's all laugh at Matsuki 'Dead-Boy-Walking' Takato!" Takato grumbled and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. This led him to realize that his phone wasn't on his person. "Aw shi-I mean crap." he glanced at Guilmon to make sure the reptile didn't notice the slip-up.

"What?"

"My phone's gone. I must've dropped it when I ran into that car. Don't ask." Takato proceeded to smack himself in the forehead repeatedly, but stopped when he saw Henry produce the missing device from one of his own pockets.

"Uh..." Henry trailed off, not at all sure of how to explain how he had come into possession of his friend's phone. "It fell from the sky."

No point in beating around the bush.

Taking the phone, Takato just stared at Henry, as if trying to look into his very soul to detect a lie. And after a full fifteen seconds, it was starting to make the orange-vested boy uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Takato finally got tired of it himself. "You know what? I don't even care. I know you couldn't possibly have taken it after I dropped it, and to be honest, falling from the sky is actually MORE plausible than what I managed to come up with just now."

Henry and Takato shared a laugh, while Terriermon and Guilmon just looked at each other and shrugged. Suddenly, Terriermon's eyes perked up.

"Uh, guys, I hear cars coming. And judging from the sound of the engines and exhaust, I'd say those government goons are on their way." he said uneasily, knowing that it would be difficult to escape from the construction site unseen.

"You recognize the sound of their vans?" Takato asked incredulously.

"What? You think these ears are just for show?" surprisingly, it was Henry who said this; Terriermon just grinned with pride.

"Well that's great and all, but we really need to figure a way out of here without being seen." Takato looked around and spotted a manhole cover. "Looks like we're going down."

"What are y...No, uh-uh." Henry said as he followed Takato's line of sight.

"You got any better ideas?"

"But it's a _sewer_!" Terriermon protested. "I'd have to spent a week just scrubbing all of the..._stuff_ out of my fur! Personally, I'd rather be captured."

"Suit yourself." Takato shrugged. "But think about Henry. How's he gonna be able to sleep knowing that you'll be locked up inside some secret government facility? I'll bet he'll have nightmares about them cutting you open and plucking out your organs one-by-one to see what makes you ti-?" Takato stopped when he noticed Terriermon had vacated his spot on Henry's shoulder.

Henry himself looked like he was about to hack up a lung as he tried to keep from laughing, and simply pointed behind Takato.

Turning around, Takato nearly lost it when he saw Terriermon struggling to budge the manhole cover, and failing spectacularly.

"What are you two waiting for? Get over here and help me with this thing!" the pint-sized digimon yelled, immensely frustrated with both his lack of physical strength and his stubby little fingers.

Obliging the "request", Takato and Henry came over to help, but found that they couldn't lift the cover from its place, as they was nothing to grab onto. The three holes in it, meant for hooks, were large enough to fit a finger through, but that wouldn't be enough to lift it up. Guilmon would've had the strength, but his claws were too large.

"Well, there goes that plan." Takato sighed.

Suddenly, something heavy and metallic impacted the ground next to them, causing everyone to jump in fright. Instinctively, the digimon stood in front of their Tamers and prepared for a fight. But there was no enemy to be found, just a red, steel hook with an oval ring at the other end serving as a handle.

It was a manhole cover hook, and it apparently had just fallen from the sky.

"...First my phone, and now this?" Takato scratched his head with his left hand while using his right to pick up the tool.

"Think later, escape now!" Terriermon insisted.

"Okay, okay, calm down." Takato said as he slipped the hook through one of the holes.

Henry joined him, grabbing the hook just under the ring, where Takato was holding it. "On three?"

With a nod, Takato started the countdown. "One...Two...Three!" and with strained grunts, both boys lifted with all there might, and managed to pop the cover up. "Whew!" Takato breathed heavily. "It looks so much easier on TV."

"Doesn't everything?" Henry remarked, then turned to Guilmon. "Can you move that the rest of the way?"

The red reptilian just gave a happy nod and used a single arm to push the cover aside.

And that was when yet another issue reared its head.

"Well, it looks wide enough for Guilmon to fit...but how's he going to get down?" Henry asked. "His hands don't look very ladder-friendly."

"His claws can bend and function like fingers, thumbs included(9), but the rungs are kinda small, and I'm more concerned about his feet. Hmm..." Takato kneeled down to look into the hole, but found that it was too dark to see the bottom. To remedy the problem, he produced a small LED flashlight from one of his back pockets. "I can see the bottom, but I can't really tell how far down it is..." Takato's eyes suddenly glazed over, as if he'd been hypnotized. "Twelve feet, six and a half inches."

"..." Henry and Terriermon shared a look, then just shrugged. 'With the day I've had so far, I wouldn't care if my own shadow reached up and smacked me.'

"Huh, weird..." Takato then looked to Guilmon. "You think you could just jump down from this height?"

Guilmon looked from his Tamer, to the hole, then back again. After a couple seconds, he nodded, and moved to dive in. However, he was halted by Henry.

"Wait, we can't do this!"

"Oh, come on! We don't have to actually get into the water, and it's mostly from rain anyway."

"That's not the problem. I don't know about you, but I only know my way around Shinjuku from ABOVE ground!" Henry said, obviously distressed now.

"Um...Well, I've only been in the sewers once, and that was to hide. One of Kazu's pranks, don't ask...Maybe we could just go down here and wait until they leave?" Takato ventured.

"That could take hours! And what happens if they decide to look in the sewer?" Henry started to pace back and forth, wracking his brain for answers to the current dilemma.

Suddenly, Takato's phone rang, giving the group another start. Upon taking the device out of his pocket, he saw that the call was from a number he didn't recognize at all.

"Hello?" he asked tentatively after he opened the phone and hit "talk".

_"You've got about two minutes before they're on you. Would've been thirty seconds had I not bought you some time." _a familiar voice answered.

Takato easily recognized the voice as belonging to LadyDevimon, but didn't let on.

"Who is this? How did you get this number?" he "demanded".

_"What are y-Oh, I getcha'. As I was saying, you don't have long before they completely box you in. I can either guide you out of the area, or provide a..._distraction_ to give you enough time to escape."_

Not liking the way she said "distraction", Takato leaned over to Henry and whispered, "He says he can guide us out of here." though he still said it loud enough to ensure that LadyDevimon heard the "guide" part.

"Who's 'He'?"

"No idea, but it's just about the only option we've got at this point." Takato went back to the phone. "Alright."

_"Go over to the smaller of the two cranes and climb the back of it. From there, you'll be able to hop over the fence. Hurry it up!"_

Gesturing for his friends to follow, Takato took off towards the red crane.

"Climb up the back and jump the fence." Takato relayed as they reached the machine.

Guilmon had a somewhat difficult time climbing, but he managed. He never noticed Terriermon looking at him with a smug little smile as he took the easy way up, letting Henry do all the work.

"Uh, this seems a bit high..." Henry gulped as he reached the top. The fence itself was ten feet high, and the part of the crane they were standing on was at least another two feet higher.

Takato spied a four-foot tall flat-top mailbox and pointed to it. "We can jump down on that." he then led by example.

Henry and Terriermon came down just fine, but Guilmon's weight caused the hollow structure to crumple like a soda can.

_"Go across the street and follow the sidewalk to the left until you see a house that's painted dark orange. When you get to it, turn down the alleyway behind it."_

"Got it." Takato did as instructed, the others following behind without hesitation or question. "Look for a house that's painted dark orange." he told them.

"A barn in the middle of Shinjuku?" Terriermon snickered.

"Now is NOT the time, Terriermon!" Henry scolded.

"Momentai!"

"Orange house!" Takato exclaimed as he spied the "checkpoint". "After the alley, then what?"

_"Just keep to the alley. You'll need to cross three streets before you're home free, but, from what I can see, that won't be a problem. There's hardly any people out and about in this area, either walking or driving."_ LadyDevimon informed.

Takato took a sharp turn into the alley, with the others close behind. "Says to keep going straight ahead."

"Great..." Henry's training kicked in as he started taking more controlled breaths to keep from getting winded.

It had taken another three minutes of non-stop running to reach the "safe zone", and by then Henry was on the verge of collapsing.

"Alright, we're in the clear now." Takato said. "Thanks...whoever you are."

_"No problem! Just be glad you took my D-Arc with you, otherwise I never wouldn't known you were in trouble. Ciao!" _the line then went dead as the Ultimate hung up.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Henry heaved out as he leaned on a wooden fence.

"...You need to do more cardio, or something." Takato said, not at all tired.

"And you...need to...do less..." Henry panted.

"Blasphemy!" Takato gasped and pointed an accusatory finger at Henry, his face twisted in a look of utter disbelief.

Terriermon giggled, but Henry just looked at him, still panting away. "...Nothing you do...could possibly...make me laugh...right now..."

"Bah." Takato grunted and leaned against the fence next to his friend.

"Humbug." Henry said, finally starting to get his breathing back under control.

Takato checked the time on his phone, having once again forgotten his watch at home, then pocketed it again. "4:10; I'm supposed to be meeting Kazu and Kenta in about twenty minutes. You wanna come with?"

"No thanks." Henry replied as he pushed off the fence. "My parents are going out at around five, and they want me to watch my little sister."

"What?" Terriermon shrieked. "I was never informed of this!"

"And?"

"'And'? 'AND'? You know what she does to me! After what I just went through, I do NOT deserve _THAT_!"

"Hey, today hasn't exactly been a walk in the park for me, either. And I don't like watching Suzie anymore than you do."

"Oh, please." Terriermon scoffed. "You give her a sandwich, a couple cookies and a juice box or two and she'll leave YOU alone for the rest of the night. And what do you think she's doing when she's not driving you up the wall, hm? I'll tell you what: she's putting me in frilly little dresses, and forcing imaginary tea down my throat!" the digimon's ears twitched when he heard a low snort come from behind him. "AND YOU!" he jabbed a tiny finger in Takato's direction. "You saved Henry's life, so I'll spare you my wrath for the 'Pwettypants' remarks from yesterday. But you say what I _know_ you're thinking, and I don't care if Guilmon digivolves to Mega; NOTHING will save you from me!"

Takato wanted to produce a witty retort, but the malicious gleam in the dog/rabbit's eyes made him decide that it was a bad idea. He may have fancied himself a Prank Master, but something told him that Terriermon was on a whole different level.

"...Do you see what I have to live with?" Henry deadpanned.

"I..." another glare from Terriermon quickly silenced the brown-haired boy. 'Digimon or not, something that little has no right to be that scary!'

"Normally, this would be the part where I tell you that you've really got nothing to fear from this hyperactive ball of fur...But I'm a pretty lousy liar." Henry just barely suppressed a smirk at the look on Takato's face.

"Right...Well, I gotta get Guilmon back to the shed before I meet the guys." Takato turned and walked off into the street beyond the alley, Guilmon falling into step behind him. "See you tomorrow!" he waved before both he and his digimon disappeared around the corner.

"Later." Henry waved back, then flicked Terriermon on the forehead, careful to avoid the spike.

"Ow! What was that for?" the pint-sized digimon yelped.

"Poured it on kinda heavy, don't you think?" Henry frowned.

"You ain't seen heavy!"

The grin Terriermon flashed actually made Henry flinch as he, too, walked out of the alley.

"Of all the digimon in the Digital World, how'd I get partnered up with you?" Henry shook his head. He loved his little pal, but sometimes...

Terriermon just let loose a maniacal cackle before going into "Plushie Mode".

(With Kazu and Kenta - 4:35pm)

"He's late." Kenta said as he checked his watch for the fifth time in as many minutes.

"By one minute. Just calm down, you look suspicious." Kazu said, looking around casually.

"All the more reason for me not to be here!" Kenta hissed.

"But you _are_ here." Kazu replied, then caught sight of something giving off a bright red glint in the sunlight. "There he is." there was no mistaking Takato's trademark goggles.

"About time." Kenta muttered. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can go home and forget it ever happened."

"Hey, this'll make a nice story to tell your little cousins. You know, show 'em that you aren't _completely_ lame..."

"Just _mostly _lame, right?" Kenta narrowed his eyes.

"You said it, not me."

"Whatever. It's better to me a lame coward than a grounded hero."

"'Grounded hero'?" Takato asked as he came to a stop in front of his friends.

"Yeah, Kenta thinks I'm a hero!" Kazu grinned.

"...Mm-hm, a regular Sir Doesnotthinkalot."(10)

"Hey, I think plenty; that's why I don't get caught." Kazu countered. "Besides, we're not even going to do anything...today. This is strictly recon."

"Hm, that sounds familiar...Oh, I know! That's what you said the last time we did something like this, yet we still ended up getting chased out of the building by security guards!"

"...Maybe I shouldn't have agreed to this." Takato said, remembering what happened quite vividly. He'd actually been caught by a guard, and had instinctively lashed out in defense, breaking the man's nose and forcing him to let go.

A month later, that guard, Toshiro, came into the Matsuki Bakery to buy a carton of doughnuts for his...pleasantly plump girlfriend, who was waiting outside. Takato just happened to be working the register that day, and the two instantly recognized one another. Thinking quickly, Takato put money from his own allowance into the register and gave Toshiro a baker's dozen for free, in exchange for him not saying anything to his parents.

Kenta didn't get a free pass, either. He made the mistake of telling his cousins what he'd done, and they had snitched on him not even an hour later.

To date, Kazu was the only one who had yet to face repercussions, of any kind, for the events that were his fault to begin with.

"Ya' think?" Kenta nearly screamed.

"Okay, seriously, calm down." Kazu all but ordered. "You're going to give us away before we even step through the door!"

"Give us away? I thought we weren't doing anything!"

"We're not, but if you keep acting like that, the guards will get suspicious, and might start following us around. Scouting a location is a LOT harder when someone's on your tail." Kazu then started walking, causing Kenta and Takato to follow almost subconsciously.

"...Why do I hang out with you? I mean, it's like your purpose in life is to complicate mine." Takato sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Because we're the only ones who bothered to look past your attitude when you first moved to Shinjuku." Kazu said with a slight smirk.

"Oh, right." Takato smirked right back.

When he and his mother had left Odaiba to live with his then-new stepfather in Shinjuku, Takato didn't exactly have a sunny disposition. He was a loner even at home, and the incredibly short fuse on his temper quickly gained him a less-than-sterling reputation at school. And though many tried to befriend him, none stuck around after he turned his infamous glare on them.

But, being the hard-headed boy that he was, Hirokazu Shioda ignored the glares, growls and clenched fists. Kenta Kitagawa was, of course, the less brave/dumb of the two, and had made sure to give himself enough room to run if he needed to.

It was actually quite astounding, the lengths that Kazu went to in order to turn Takato into a friend. It took two months of constant pestering and at least four black eyes before he finally got Takato to laugh at a joke. Another week before he started initiating games during PE and ate with them at lunch without being prompted to. And an additional two weeks before they became an inseparable group, which they remained to this day.

But that didn't mean there wasn't dissent in the ranks every now and then.

"That was then, this is now. You could easily get other friends, Takato. So could I, for that matter." Kenta said, then frowned at the weird looks both Takato and Kazu gave him. "What? I could! Kazu's the one people don't like, not me!"

"What're you talking about? Everyone loves me!" Kazu boasted.

"Enough to let you go...and pray you never return." Kenta deadpanned.

"...Takato, do you have any idea how much you've messed up the team dynamic?" Kazu glared at the taller boy.

"Huh? Kenta's ALWAYS been the 'Voice of Reason'. It's basically his job to protest everything that you do; I just made him a bit more witty." Takato shrugged.

"Hm...Now that I think about it, you're right." Kazu stroked his chin in thought.

"Hey, I don't protest _everything_." Kenta defended.

"You just protested the fact that we said you protest everything." Takato pointed out. "Not helping your case, bud."

"Now that's just unfair."

"More protesting." Kazu chimed.

"Well...I don't protest Kazu breathing!" it was the only think Kenta could think of.

"Unless he's recently eaten pizza with sardines on it, or that liver and onions thing that his mom fixes..." Takato shuddered slightly at the mere thought of the "Shioda Special"(11), as Kazu called it.

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it." Kazu retorted.

"I _have_ tried it, twice." Takato scowled and gulped loudly. "I almost hurled just thinking about it."

"You're a better man than me, Takato. I tried it once, and I haven't been the same since." Kenta looked like he wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and cry himself to sleep.

"Okay, you guys are just being ridiculous now."

"Well, you'd know, being the King of Ridiculous." Takato scoffed.

"Thank you." Kazu smiled.

"Wasn't a compliment."

"Was to me."

(Four Hours Later)

"Mission Check-It-Out" or, as Kenta had called it, "Mission Doomed-To-Failure" had gone off without a hitch. They had managed to wander around the mall for nearly two hours without drawing attention, and Takato had drawn a rough map on a pocket notebook Kenta had on his person. Said map detailed the main route, every exit they'd seen, locations to "hit" when they came back, and places they could possibly hide if they couldn't make it to an exit.

After a trip to the food court, they went their separate ways, with Takato coming straight home and heading for his Xbox 360. He'd spent an hour playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted, trying to acquire a high enough bounty to face the second-to-last boss(12). And then he was challenged by Lillymon, and accepted.

Bad move. Lillymon was a _monster_ when it came to racing games, and showed no mercy at all. And after twenty straight minutes of seeing his macho Ford GT getting its ass whooped by her incredibly girly Carrera GT, Takato was starting to get fed up.

"Oh, come on!" he screamed as Lillymon's Pink Porsche came flying out of a shortcut perpendicular to the road he was on and t-boned his FGT at over two-hundred miles per hour, causing him to slam into an oncoming garbage truck. She kept on her merry way, while Takato was forced reset his car, undoubtedly costing him the race.

"That looked like it hurt. Pause for a moment, I'll go get a band-aid for your pride." Lillymon laughed.

"Please, you can't beat me fair and square, and you know it. That's why you pull crap like that in the first place." Takato snorted.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware of any rules. I know this isn't Burnout, but it's not Gran Turismo, either. I can hit you all I want, and I'll continue to do so!" to prove her point, Lillymon actually turned her car around, ignoring the "wrong way" warning, and came back to crash head-on into Takato at two-hundred and thirty-seven miles per hour.

The hit was so vicious that it caused Takato's FGT to flip up on its nose, then crash down on its side before automatically righting itself. But, by then Lillymon's CGT was already speeding down the road towards the finish line. In the end, Takato came in a full five seconds after Lillymon.

"So unfair..." Takato muttered as he dropped the controller onto his lap and slouched back into the sofa.

"Aww, does someone need a hug?" without waiting for an answer, Lillymon pulled Takato in. "If there's one thing I learned in the Digital World, it's that there's no shame in being beaten by an opponent who's just plain superior." she smirked as she felt the boy's entire body twitch.

"I don't hear you talking trash like this when we play Team Fortress or Halo..." Takato said, his voice muffled due to the digimon's embrace.

"Exactly. I don't get to do this often, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth."

It was at this moment that BlackGatomon appeared on the sofa to Takato's left.

"Hey, get a room, you two!" the cat digimon giggled.

Both Takato and Lillymon blushed and immediately disengaged from the one-sided hug.

"It's not like that, and you know it." Lillymon pouted.

"Regardless of what I know, I come in here to see you hugging and talking about 'milking'..." BlackGatomon let out another giggle, one of a decidedly more perverted nature than the one before. 'Heh, milking...'

For a full three seconds, silence reigned. Then Lillymon face almost glowed red when she finally got double entendre. She shook her head violently in denial, not trusting her voice at the moment.

Of course, the true meaning of the comment went right over Takato's head.

Fortunately, for Lillymon at least, Takato's stepfather chose this moment to come downstairs.

"Ah, Most Wanted? Mind if I play?" Takehiro asked with a slight smirk.

Lillymon wasn't the only racing beast in the household.

"Sure, Dad. Just watch out for Lillymon; she cheats." Takato said, giving the digimon a sideways glance to gauge her reaction.

"Don't mind your son, he's just a sore loser." Lillymon smiled, putting particular emphasis on "loser".

"I'll keep that in mind." Takehiro said as he took a third controller out of the entertainment center and plugged it into the console. "I hope you'll go easy on an old man."

"...What are you up to?" Takato's eyes narrowed in suspicion. His stepfather pointed out that he wasn't old at every opportunity, being only thirty-five, the same age as Mei(13).

If Takehiro Matsuki was calling _himself_ old, something was very, very wrong.

"What? I'm not a gamer like you two." Takehiro shrugged.

"Uh-huh...I'm watching you." Takato said, then turned back to the game.

BlackGatomon just watched silently, obviously amused, and knowing that Takehiro was indeed up to something. In the Digital World, she'd gotten very good at rooting out traitors and spies for the Boss. Compared to some digimon, it was almost laughably easy to detect the lies of a human.

After picking out a track, traffic levels and the number of laps, the three chose their vehicles. Takato stuck with his matte black Ford GT with red tribal vinyls, as it was still his fastest car, and the one he had the most experience in controlling. Lillymon also stuck with her Carrera GT, with its almost blinding metallic pink paintjob and flower vinyls. Takehiro was a surprise, as he covered his eyes and chose at random between his own green Ford GT, a blue Lamborghini Murciélago and a stock-looking metallic black Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. He'd ended up with the SLR, and actually smiled, despite the car having lower stats than the other two.

Once the race started, stats quickly became meaningless. Stat-wise, Takato's FGT had the edge in acceleration, but Takehiro's SLR got the jump on both him and Lillymon off the line, immediately putting at least two car lengths between itself and the opposition.

However, Takato quickly caught up and even passed his stepfather. Or, he would've, had Takehiro not pulled a PIT maneuver on him going into the first corner, causing him to do a complete one-eighty and crash into a guardrail.

"..." Takato's jaw dropped and he looked at his stepfather, who only shrugged and continued to battle it out with Lillymon for first place. "Fine, if that's how you want to play." Takato reset his car and launched through a shortcut that the others had been going too fast to catch.

Takato would have to hit every single shortcut if he wanted to catch up, and would have to play dirty if he wanted to win. But therein laid the problem. This wasn't Burnout, where you could hit the opponent's car and not slow down at all. In Need For Speed, you risked impeding yourself just as much, or even more than your opponent when you hit them. But Lillymon seemed to have a technique that allowed her to hit him as often as she wanted with little sacrifice of speed. And Takehiro seemed to have something similar.

'No, I'm no good at fighting dirty, at least not here...But I am good at going under the radar.' Takato smirked as he darted through another shortcut, steadily gaining ground on his stepfather and Lillymon, who were too engrossed in their own bout for dominance to care about the person in last place.

And that continued until the final lap, where Takato decided to make his move. He had had hung back a good distance so they would keep overlooking his presence, until he had forced them to acknowledge him by speeding out of a shortcut, across the street in _front_ of them, and into another shortcut.

"What th-NO!" Lillymon screamed as Takehiro managed to bump her out of a turn and into a building.

"Just you and me now, son!" Takehiro laughed as he caught sight of the Ford GT.

"You're half right!" Takato grinned as he saw the SLR creeping up on him in the final long straight before the finish line. 'That's right, use up all your nitrous.'

With the red flares marking the finish in sight, Takehiro rolled up alongside Takato's car and prepared to use the PIT maneuver one more time. But Takato saw it coming, and hit the brakes at the last second, causing the SLR to overshoot and turn into oncoming traffic, forcing Takehiro to slow down on instinct. They were now going at about the same speed, with Takehiro ahead. However, Takato still had a full tank of nitrous, and used it to breeze past his stepfather.

Then, little more than a car length away from the finish line, the impossible happened. A Carrera GT with a ridiculous paintjob flew past the Ford GT and crossed the line just one-tenth of a second before him.

"..." Takato could only stare in shock, the controller falling from his limp hands.

Lillymon sat there, sporting a grin that looked to be one step short of splitting her face in two. It may have been an indicator of great happiness and self-satisfaction, but it was more mocking than any words she could've possibly said.

"H-How...?" Takato finally uttered.

"Pure talent, how else?" though it didn't seem possible, Lillymon's grin grew even wider.

"Whoo!" Takehiro exclaimed. "That's the most fun I've had in ages!" he suddenly felt a cold chill run through his body. "Uh, besides every moment I spend with my lovely wife, that is..." the chill subsided as Mei walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs, humming a little tune to herself.

"Tch, that's easy for you to say. You don't have a reputation to uphold." Takato frowned.

"Just because you can't beat Lillymon, doesn't mean anything's changed between you and your friends." Takehiro pointed out.

Lillymon's grin grew even wider when even Takato's own stepfather acknowledged her superiority.

"...I suppose you're right...Could you stop that? It's really starting to creep me out." Takato said, leaning away from Lillymon.

"My face is starting to hurt, anyway." Lillymon dropped the grin and starting massaging her cheeks.

"Tell me, son, did you have fun?" Takehiro asked.

"Well...yeah, of course." Takato had to admit, that was the first time he'd gotten such a rush out of a game in a while. "Stealth racing" was something entirely new to him, and the challenge brought a thrill that racing all-out just couldn't match.

"Then does it really matter that you lost? It's just a game, afterall." Takehiro ruffled his stepson's hair as he stood up. "Dinner should be ready soon, so don't get carried away over here." he then walked into the kitchen to watch the food while his wife did...whatever it was she was doing upstairs.

"Your stepdad is a wise man." BlackGatomon said.

"Eh, he has his moments." Takato shrugged, then got off the sofa and unplugged his controller from the 360. "I've had enough humiliation for one day."

"Aww, c'mon, put it back in!" Lillymon pouted, using her big black eyes to great effect.

She didn't notice BlackGatomon slapping both paws over her mouth, nor did she hear the Champion's quiet snickering.

"I know what I did last time won't work with just you playing, so what's the point? It's no fun coming last all the time."

BlackGatomon made an odd choking noise, but neither Takato or Lillymon paid it any mind.

"Look on the bright side; you get a lovely view of my car's awesome back end!" Lillymon replied cheekily.

"Well, I do enjoy ramming it." Takato glanced at the feline digimon when she made another weird noise and started thrashing around on the couch. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Y-Yeah...I'm j-just f-f-fine..." BlackGatomon barely managed to wheeze out.

"Right...Anyway, I'm done for the night. I don't care how much fun the game is, losing gets tiresome after a while." Takato said as he walked towards the staircase that led to the second floor of the building.

"You've just gotta learn how to pick your spots, that's all." Lillymon pouted again when Takato just waved her off and went upstairs to get ready for dinner.

"I'll bet there's a spot you'd love him to _pick_..." BlackGatomon giggled perversely.

"Oh? Well, don't keep me in suspense; enlighten me." both Lillymon's tone and her expression screamed disinterest.

"It's better if you figure it out for yourself, but I'll give you a hint: it starts with a 'G'." BlackGatomon smirked and started a mental stopwatch.

The seconds passed, as did various expressions across Lillymon's face as she tried to decipher her "rival's" meaning.

'A spot that starts with "G"...G...G...G...spot...Of course, G-Spo-!' Lillymon's face went crimson once again, an expression of pure shock etched onto her face.

"There it is." BlackGatomon laughed, but soon quieted when the Ultimate showed no further reaction. "Lillymon? Hellooo?" she waved a paw in front of the larger digimon's face, but still got nothing.

Suddenly, the cat found herself face-to-barrel with Lillymon's Flower Cannon.

"I would appreciate it if you would keep your mind out of the gutter from now on, or at the very least keep it to yourself." Lillymon said in a disturbingly monotonous voice.

"Where's the fun in that?" BlackGatomon smirked, knowing that, at worst, Lillymon might kick her out of the open window to the left of the sofa.

"It's not about 'fun', it's about common decency."

"Hmph, prude."

"If you can call me a prude just for observing simple manners, then I can call you a slut for the crap that constantly comes out of your mouth."

The smirk was instantly wiped from BlackGatomon's face, replaced by a scowl.

"Kinda mean-spirited, isn't it?"

"And what you're doing isn't? I've asked you, several times, to stop, but you never do." though she seemed to have no intention of actually blowing BlackGatomon away, Lillymon did keep the cannon trained on her.

"I'm just trying to get your to loosen up, that's all." BlackGatomon shrugged.

"Against my will, which is hardly nice."

"Fine, fine. If you want to take everything so damn seriously, I'll stop. At least around you. Takato doesn't seem to have a problem with what I say."

"That's because he doesn't get most of it."

"The fact that you do get it shows you aren't as 'innocent' as you like to make yourself appear."

"I never claimed to be 'innocent'. I just like to observe rules of proper conduct."

"Whatever. I swear, you're almost as bad as an Angewomon."

Lillymon scoffed as she finally lowered the cannon. "I don't put _that_ much emphasis on being polite and tactful." the flower petals around the cannon closed, then opened a second later to reveal a normal hand.

"That's why I said 'almost'." another smirk found its way to BlackGatomon's lips. "You know what I find really funny, though? You always complain, but you don't deny." she then teleported away before Lillymon could lash out, leaving the Ultimate almost literally steaming.

"Lillymon, is something wrong?" Takehiro asked, poking his head out from the kitchen. "You look ups...I'm sorry!" the man squeaked out an instinctive apology when the digimon turned a glare on him and quickly returned to his task.

Lillymon remained positively pissed even through dinner. She kept her furious stare on her "rival", not even letting up to look at the food she was putting in her mouth.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed. Takehiro was trying his hardest not to draw any attention to himself, Takato was torn between trying to help and taking after his stepfather, and Mei...didn't seem to care. Much like BlackGatomon, the target of the Death Glare. She just continued to eat in silence, looking very pleased with herself.

"...If you two are going to fight, please do it outside." Mei finally spoke. "Preferably in a place where people won't see you and/or get hurt."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Lilly, here, is just a little miffed about something I said. Something she never did come up with an answer to." BlackGatomon winked at Lillymon.

Said digimon didn't respond, instead contemplating just how much trouble she'd be in if she gouged the cat's eyes out with her chopsticks. Lillymon didn't even notice that she had actually snapped her chopsticks in half a second after BlackGatomon had winked at her.

Fortunately, before the fairy digimon completely lost it, the white and purple ball of inexhaustible energy and cheer known as Calumon deposited himself in her lap.

"Hi!" he waved to everyone, then turned his head up to look at Lillymon and immediately shrank back.

That was when Lillymon realized that she hadn't kept her composure nearly as well as she thought. While she hadn't said anything, every bit of anger she felt had manifested itself in the form of a deep scowl, bordering on a snarl. Upon seeing Calumon's terrified expression, that anger instantly evaporated as her maternal instincts took over.

Takato and Takehiro let out sighs of relief when Lillymon hugged Calumon to herself and started cooing softly to make him calm down. They both noted the fact that Calumon could both ignite and extinguish Lillymon's temper, and committed it to memory.

"So...how was everyone's day?" Takehiro asked, trying to start a conversation. However, only Takato, BlackGatomon and Calumon could really say anything. Everyone else had been at the bakery all day.

"Nothing much, just played with Guilmon for a bit, then went to the mall with Kazu and Kenta...We didn't do anything, honest!" Takato said quickly when his mother gave him a somewhat downgraded version of "The Look"(14).

"Come on, honey, you've gotta trust the boy at least sometimes." Takehiro said.

"I do trust him; it's Kazu that I don't trust." Mei replied.

"Hey, he's not _that_ bad." Takato tried to defend his friend, but the deadpan looks he was getting from everyone, even Calumon, showed that no one was buying it. "Okay, so he is that bad. But that doesn't change the fact that we didn't do anything."

"Yet?" Mei rose an eyebrow.

"..."

"Mm-hm. If I find out that you caused any kind of trouble whatsoever in that mall, you'll be grounded for a month." the nonchalance with which Takato's mother delivered the threat made it even worse for him, as he knew that a month with be the absolute minimum punishment.

"I made a new friend today!" Calumon grinned.

"And who would that be?" Lillymon asked, still clutching the little digimon as if he were her favorite plush toy.

"Impmon! He was a lot of fun to play with...Until he started losing." Calumon frowned. "Then he turned into a big meanie!"

"Really?" Takato asked, sarcasm obvious in his tone. Impmon weren't exactly known for their cheerful disposition.

But, as usual, the sarcasm went right over Calumon's head. "Yeah! He threw fireballs at me and everything!" he waved his arms about in anger, or at least his version of it.

Takato frowned at that. Impmon were short-tempered troublemakers by nature, and it sounded like this one was no different.

"Calumon, where did you meet this Impmon?" the boy asked.

"In the park!"

"Thought so." there had been rumors going around the school about a "kid" skulking around Shinjuku Park and using "firecrackers" to scare people, specifically couples. Some of the rumors also included a costume of some kind.

"You think he'll be a problem?" BlackGatomon asked. Normally, an Impmon was nothing at all to worry about, being big on attitude and low on power. But once they digivolved, things could get real nasty, real fast.

"I'd bet money on it. But I don't really know what to do. Confronting him would probably get us nowhere, but I can't just let him keep doing what he's doing. Either he's going to hurt someone eventually, or get himself hurt when he throws a fireball at the wrong person." Guilmon loved his fun and games, but playing "Fireball Tag" with him was a very bad idea.

"Well, it's only a matter of time before Pineapplehead and her little fox get wind of it and take care of him." Lillymon shrugged, surprising everyone with her blatant disregard for the life of a fellow digimon.

"Ah, I can see a bit of that natural hatred for Virus-types is showing through." BlackGatomon smirked, glad that the well-mannered Ultimate was finally showing a bit of a mean streak.

"It's not about that. Why should I have any sympathy for a digimon who comes here just to wreak havoc? Minor it may be, but it doesn't change the fact that he's tempting fate by doing it." Lillymon paused to grab a new pair of chopsticks and pop a fried shrimp into her mouth, making sure to chew and swallow before continuing. "Besides, you know was well as I do that, if this Impmon manages to digivolve, he'll do a whole lot more than some childish pranks."

"Maybe you could find him a human partner?" Takehiro suggested. "How about Kazu? They sound like they're perfect for each other."

"That's the problem. It's bad enough having two of them around in the first place; do you _really_ want them to start working together?" Takato may have thought of Kazu like the brother he never had, but one of him was enough.

More than enough, according to many.

"Point." Takehiro went back to silently enjoying his wife's delicious shrimp tempura.

"I say just let things take care of themselves. Either that Renamon will get him, or he'll get himself blown up by Guilmon." Lillymon sighed. "But, I'll admit that I am just a little bias, so I'm not the best person to ask for advice."

"I have to agree with Lills on this one. An Impmon isn't even worth fighting, and words don't mean much to them. Pretty ironic, considering that they like to talk so much. My advice is to just let it go." BlackGatomon said, happily devouring another shrimp. "By the way, do you like the new nickname? Calling you 'Lillymon' all the time is so...boring."

"...If you _have_ to give me a nickname, you can call me 'Lilly'." Lillymon answered.

"Sure thing, Lills!" BlackGatomon flashed a toothy grin, then went back to eating.

Lillymon rolled her eyes, though it was hard to tell she did so, and also went back to her meal, which Calumon was also partaking in.

Takato just sighed to himself, absently munching on a piece of fried bell pepper as he thought of what to do.

'He hasn't done anything to deserve being deleted, but from the way Lillymon and BG talk, that seems like the only way to get that Impmon to stop. Not a lot of options here...' Takato thought.

Seeing the look of uncertainty on her son's face, Mei decided to share her opinion on the dilemma.

"I'm not exactly an authority on digimon, so all I can tell you is do what you feel is right. But I will say that I think you should at least try to talk to this 'Impmon'. If he won't listen to reason, tell him what will happen if he keeps it up." Mei advised.

"Well, death threats work wonders on human beings..." Takehiro joked.

"Most digimon, too." BlackGatomon said. "But Impmon aren't most digimon. They've got a reputation for mouthing off to those much stronger than them, and just having a general lack of self-preservation instincts. Believe me, I've dealt with several of them, and usually the only way to get them to back down is delete them or beat them into unconsciousness."

"Tenacious little runts..." Lillymon muttered.

"Mm-hm." BlackGatomon agreed.

"...So, my options are to either knock him out or off him...Wonderful." Takato leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples.

"...'off him'?" BlackGatomon rose an eyebrow. "Who says that anymore?"

"Would you prefer 'Deep Six'?"

"...You watch too many mob movies."

"Like you don't?"

"You don't see me going around using gangster assassination terms." BlackGatomon countered.

"No, but I did hear you saying 'Nyah, you'll never take me alive, see?' in the bathroom the other day."

"You did not." BlackGatomon knew she'd replied just a little too quickly there.

"Maybe I didn't...But I know I heard you say it in your sleep last night." Takato plucked another piece of bell pepper from his plate and ate it.

"..." BlackGatomon couldn't deny it, she'd been having a dream based on an American mob film she'd seen on TV earlier that night. Right after she shouted "You'll never take me alive", she'd opened fire on an FBI agent, portrayed by Lillymon, with her "Tommy Gun".

For some odd reason, she'd missed every single shot, and ended up getting shot six times herself, even though it was her own dream. This was followed by her falling out of the window behind her, plummeting twenty stories to certain death and waking up just before she hit the street.

'The one time he wakes up before me...' BlackGatomon mentally groaned when she caught Lillymon smirking at her.

XX

After dinner, Takato went upstairs for his nightly pre-sleep ritual.

While brushing his teeth, Takato took note of BlackGatomon sitting on the sink next to him and decided to ask her about something that had been bugging him ever since the whole "Men In Black" deal.

"Hey, BG, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Shoot." the black feline said while flossing her own teeth.

"Whose phone did you use to call me this afternoon?"

"Well, I left here in a bit of a hurry, so I didn't get a chance to grab either of your parents' phones. So, I started looking around for someone on the street with a phone I could 'borrow'. Funny thing was, the closer I got to the construction site, the number of people I saw dropped dramatically. Within a few blocks, the streets were completely empty."

"Actually, I noticed that, too, on the way down there." Takato narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Anyway, I did eventually find someone...someone whom I knew had a cell phone..." BlackGatomon chuckled nervously.

"Who do y-!" Takato was interrupted by his phone suddenly going off in his pocket, startling him and causing him to bite down hard on his toothbrush. "Son of a..." he hissed, hoping he hadn't cracked a tooth. Taking the phone out of his pocket, he saw a number that he didn't recognize at all. Taking a quick glance at BlackGatomon, he answered the call. "Hello?"

_"Who is this?"_ a young female voice demanded.

"Well, you're a rude one, aren't you." Takato frowned.

_"This type of situation doesn't call for me to be polite. Who are you?"_

"And just what type of situation is this?" Takato asked, ignoring the repeated demand.

_"The type of situation where someone stole my phone this afternoon, and used it to call you. Now, just who the _hell_ are you, boy? If I have to ask again, I'll be very, _very_ vexed."_

"...Wait a minute, your voice...I swear I know it from somewhere..."

_"Don't try to change the subje...Hold it, I think I recognize yours, too..."_

"..."

_"..."_

"Pineapplehead?/_Gogglehead?"_ both teens exclaimed at once.

_"Dammit, you little creep!"_ Rika raged. _"When I get my hands on you, I'll-"_ it was at this point that Takato covered both the speaker and microphone so she couldn't hear him and he couldn't hear her.

"Are you serious?" Takato hissed to BlackGatomon, who rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"I told you, there was the only person on the street at the time!" BlackGatomon defended.

"Then you should've broken into someone's house and taken their phone!"

"Oh please, like that would've been any better!"

"It would've! With anyone else, there's a really, really, _REALLY_ good chance that they DON'T have a freaking _ninja kitsune_ at their beck and call!"

"And you have three Ultimates and an overpowered Rookie at yours, AND you've got a friend with a Terriermon that can digivolve to Champion level. If anyone's got something to worry about, it's Little Miss Attitude!" BlackGatomon pointed out. "She sends her Renamon after you, you send SkullGreymon after her. See how she likes getting her house vaporized."

"Yeah, along with half the city." Takato deadpanned.

"Oh, come on, SG isn't _that_ strong." BlackGatomon laughed. Of course, she wasn't going to tell Takato that she'd personally seen SkullGreymon annihilate an _entire_ city with an attack he called "Ground Zero"; basically a supercharged Dark Shot(15).

"Right, and Calumon's repulsive." Takato shook his head and uncovered the phone.

_"-your legs with a rusty dōzuki, then rip out your kidneys and make you eat them!"_ Rika finally finished, panting from the sheer intensity of her rant.

"You done? Feel better? Good, now it's my turn. I don't have a clue who took your phone, or who called me. Henry and Terriermon got into it with a Gorillamon this afternoon, and I helped out. We won, he lost, yay. Then the suits came, and I know you know who I'm talking about. Anyway, Henry and I were deciding what to do, when my phone rings. I answer it and some guy's on the other end telling me that he can get us out of the area before the goons get to us. He came through, then hung up, and that was the end of it."

_"...So, some mysterious 'guy' stole my phone, just to keep you and your equally worthless friends from becoming government experiments? Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"_

"Frankly, I don't care what you believe, Queenie; that's what happened. Now, if it's alright with you, I'd like to go to bed. If you want to ramble some more, I can leave the phone open; I've got unlimited evening minutes." despite knowing that, somehow, it was going to come back and bite him, Takato still couldn't resist pissing the "Digimon Queen" off.

On the other end, Rika made a sound like a cross between a clogged vacuum cleaner and an angry cobra.

"Oh, I bet I could fry an egg on your forehead right now. Call it a night?" the line went dead as Rika hung up. "Sleep tight, your majesty." Takato smirked, then stuffed his phone back into his pocket and finished brushing his teeth.

(Meanwhile, At The Nonaka Residence)

Rika sat on her futon in the middle of her room, gripping her cell phone so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Suddenly, she cocked her arm back and hurled the device towards the wall in front of her.

Fortunately, Renamon appeared in the blink of an eye and caught it before it impacted. Rika had broken four other phones before this one in similar manners, usually after talking with her mother, one of which Renamon had witnessed. That time, Rika had berated her for not intercepting the phone, knowing that it was well within her capabilities to do so. She probably could've let it go this time, as the wall likely would've gotten the worst of it, but better safe than sorry.

Renamon placed the phone on Rika's dresser, then vanished just as quickly as she had come, not bothering to wait for a sign of gratitude that she knew wouldn't come. She had saved that particular phone from destruction three times before, and never got so much as a "thanks" in return.

'Not that I get one for anything I do...' Renamon's eyes widened. "Where did _that_ come from?" she mumbled to herself as she sat down on the roof right above her Tamer's room.

In said room, Rika remained still and silent, hands balled into fists and right eye twitching ever so slightly. Oh, how she wished she had a punching bag right now. Or better yet, one of the snooty little privileged brats she was forced to call classmates. She smirked as she thought of Ageha Shiori, one of the worst of the bunch at her all-girls academy, gagged, bound with duct tape and hanging from the ceiling by a chain.

Her smirk widened into a sadistic grin when Ageha was replaced by the latest bane of her existence, named "Takato". He hadn't given his name personally, but she'd heard the blue-haired boy call him that, and his digimon called him "Takatomon", to which he replied that he wasn't a "mon". But names didn't much matter to Rika, at least not those given by their parents. To her, they were "Gogglehead" and "Life Jacket", and would remain so until she decided they earned something else.

'And speaking of names, the fact that I've got his, and his phone number, makes him easier to find.' now all she had to do was ask around a little, starting in the park. Someone was bound to know him, or at least know of him.

Why wouldn't she just have Renamon tail him for a day? Because that would be too easy. She felt it would be much more satisfying when she tracked him down all by herself, then showed up in front of his house one day.

'Oh, the look on his face before I hand out his long-overdue beating...' Rika actually giggled to herself at the thought of seeing unadulterated shock and terror in the eyes of such a cocky individual.

(The Next Day - 8:20am)

Takato knew today would be far from ordinary, simply by how it started. His alarm clock actually woke him up on the first try, he didn't trip over anything getting out of bed, he didn't have to deal with peeping digimon in the shower, and breakfast had been a quiet affair. And now it looked like he wasn't going to be late for school!

"Wow, we're actually on time today!" Kenta said as he walked alongside Kazu and Takato.

"...Something bad is going to happen today." Takato took a quick glance over his left shoulder.

"What are you talking about? The day's been perfect so far!" Kenta smiled, blissfully oblivious to just how the universe worked...according to Kazu and Takato.

"Same here. What about you, Chumley?" Kazu turned to Takato.

"Not a single thing has gone wrong since I woke up."

"Then it's just as I feared..." Kazu frowned. "Prepare yourselves, gentlemen, for now we go forward into the jaws of oblivion."

"...I think the word you're looking for is 'detention'." Takato sweatdropped.

"'Oblivion' sounds cooler." Kazu shrugged.

"You guys are just being paranoid." Kenta scoffed.

"Oh, really? Well, when's the last time you had a day that started out perfect?"

"Actually, I had an awesome day just this past Sund..." Kenta trailed off as the blood drained from his face. He then collapsed and curled into a tight ball on the ground, mumbling incoherently.

Takato and Kazo shared a look, then sighed before picking their friend up, draping his arms around their shoulders and carrying him off towards their school. They also made a silent vow to find out just what had happened to Kenta over the weekend.

As they drew closer to the school, they noticed dozens of students, as well as several members of the school staff, gathered around the football field.

"Wonder what's going on over there?" Takato rose an eyebrow.

"I don't know, maybe a football game?" Kazu replied sarcastically.

"At 8:25 in the morning?"

"It could happen."

Both boys picked up the pace and soon joined the students who were gawking at the field in utter confusion.

Gone were the perfectly straight lines normally attributed to the field. In their place, random squiggles that looked more like a preschooler's finger-painted attempt at a football field than anything professional.

"...Whoa..." was all Takato could say.

"I'll bet it was one of the football team's rivals from another school." Kazu concluded.

"Our team doesn't _have_ any rivals, Kazu. This school hasn't won a game in four years, remember?"

"Three and a half." the football coach, who happened to be standing right next to Takato, corrected. One would think he'd be at least somewhat angry about the blatant disrespect for his team, but he'd stopped caring shortly after his players did.

Other students started throwing out their opinions as to who was to blame.

"I'll bet it's a prank by the Hopscotch team; all that hopping has jarred their brains!" one of Jeri's friends, Ayaka Itou, accused.

"Hey, _I'm_ on the Hopscotch team!" Jeri huffed.

"Is it supposed to be a drawing of something?" a male student wondered aloud.

"Yeah, it's a neoclassical interpretation of a little-known painting by Leonardo da Vinci, called 'The Squiggly Line'." a female student replied.

"...What?" four different students asked.

"Everyone laughed at me when I said chalk was dangerous! Well who's laughing now, huh? No one!" one of the older male students boasted.

His prideful look turned into a hard scowl when both Takato and Kazu suddenly pointed at him and started cackling like cartoon hyenas.

"Whoa, check out the vein on his forehead!" another boy said.

"This is no laughing matter; it's vandalism!" the principal, Mr. Hido, yelled, a vein pulsing on his own forehead. "YOU THREE!" he stomped up to Takato, Kazu and the still-catatonic Kenta. "You did this, didn't you?"

'Son of a bitch...' Takato thought, unable to actually say anything because of sheer disbelief.

"Hey, we take offense to that!" Kazu said, standing up to older male. "We take pride in our work, and would've done a LOT better than this. This," Kazu gestured wildly to the defaced field, "is the work of amateurs. We are professionals, thank you very much!"

Takato could only gape in total shock, hoping and praying that he hadn't just heard that. It was enough to even knock Kenta back into the world of the living, and cause him to stare at Kazu in horror.

"...I do not know this boy." Takato said as he looked back at the principal.

"Neither do I." Kenta immediately agreed. "Is he even a student here?"

"Nice try, you little punks." Mr. Hido growled. "But I know you three, and your reputations. I even know your nicknames." he turned his glare to Kazu. "'The Mastermind'," then to Takato, "'The Enforcer'," and finally Kenta, "and 'The Lackey'."

"...'The Lackey'?" Kenta's left eye twitched.

"That was the most _polite_ one on the list. Same goes for you two, as well." Mr. Mido snorted.

"Uh, could we see that list, by any chance?" Kazu asked.

"No, but I'll tell you what, or, I should say, _who_ you _can_ see. Ms. Uzari, in the detention room, for the next two weeks." the principal smirked as he adjusted his dark grey tie, then looked around at the rest of the students. "What are you all doing still standing around? By my watch, you've got just over a minute to get to your classes."

For once, Takato, Kazu and Kenta were the only students NOT rushing through the halls in a desperate bid to beat the clock. Afterall, they already had detention for the next two weeks, so what was the point in hurrying?

"Well, you were right, 'Kato, we got detention. Tch, this just figures. It's when I _didn't_ do anything that I got in trouble." Kazu groaned and kicked a small stone out of his path.

"Kazu..." Takato called, his tone eerily calm considering the circumstances. His head was slightly bowed, causing his hair to cast a shadow over his eyes, hiding them from view.

"..." Kazu gulped and took a step back, his self-preservation instincts suddenly kicking in.

"Ten...Nine..." Takato started the countdown.

Kazu yelped like a puppy that had its paw stepped on and took off towards the nearest entrance to the school building.

"Eight...Seven...One." normally Kazu got a full ten seconds...Then again, he didn't normally get them two weeks of detention. With Ms. Uzari.

And so, Kenta was left all alone outside, slowly walking up to the main building. It was rare to see the boy legitimately angry, and even moreso for him to want to harm one of his best friends. But here he was, hoping that Takato left Kazu conscious so he would feel it when Kenta got his shots in.

(Ms. Asaji's Class - 8:35am)

Most of the excitement from minutes before had died down, those many students were still whispering about it and pointing fingers. Most of those fingers were directed towards the three students who were naturally the primary suspects.

Of those three, only two looked truly mad about their detention sentencing, which even some teachers felt was a bit too harsh. The third...it was hard to tell if he was angry, or just in pain.

Kazu hissed as he gingerly poked his swollen and bruised right eye. He hated being hit in the face. Takato knew this, and always punched him in the abdomen, but Kenta was another story. You wouldn't think it just by looking at him, but Kenta was a natural southpaw and had a nasty left hook.

'Maybe the Art of Comedy isn't the only thing Takato's training him in...' Kazu thought.

Of course, he didn't blame either of his friends for what they'd done. He had expected such a reaction the moment he mouthed off to the principal, and didn't really mind. According to his father, one of the many criteria for a "true friend" was hitting you for doing something stupid, but not allowing anyone else to do the same.

"Okay, okay, everybody, give me your attention. For a change." Ms. Asaji murmured the last part to herself, though some of the students at the front of the class still heard it and snickered. "You, too, Kazu." she said when she saw the boy meticulously folding a piece of notebook paper into an airplane.

"Aww." Kazu groaned in protest, but discarded the unfinished plane anyway.

"I assume none of you vandalized the football field, despite accusations and reputations. I'll give you boys the benefit of the doubt this time, as you probably would've done a better job." the woman couldn't keep a small smile from coming out, but it disappeared quickly. "But, if you know anything about it, let me know, okay?"

"..." for once, even Kazu was speechless.

A student raised his hand.

"Yes, Hideki?"

"Excuse me, Ms. Asaji, but did you just say that you DON'T think they did it?" most of the class looked at the teacher with similar expressions of confusion, also not quite sure they'd heard her correctly.

"No, I don't." Ms. Asaji answered without hesitation. In fact, most of the school staff, including the principal himself, didn't think they did it.

Smart aleck he may have been, but they had to admit that Kazu made a valid point: he and his friends displayed impressive talent and innovation in their mischief. What happened to the football field just didn't fit their M.O. at all.

'Heh, Ms. Asaji always was one of the cooler teachers.' Takato thought with a slight smile. He was still pissed about getting two weeks of detention, with Ms. Uzari, but it was nice to know that someone in the school thought better of them.

"Now, pick up your pencils, it's pop quiz time."

'I retract my previous statement.' Takato let his head fall onto his notebook with a solid "thump".

The rest of the class burst into protest, all of the voices blending together to become nigh-indecipherable noise.

But one voice stood out from all the rest.

"You never said anything about a test!"

"That's the whole point of a pop quiz, Kazu." Ms. Asaji replied, grabbing a stack of papers from behind her podium.

"But it's not fair!" Kazu whined.

"If life were fair, I'd be in the Bahamas." the woman sighed before handing out the quiz papers to the students at the front of each row. "Maybe this'll teach you to pay attention in class."

"Aww, I don't wanna learn that!"

Ms. Asaji just shook her head and sighed once again. 'Sometimes I just don't understand how he maintains a solid B in this class.' she had moved him away from Takato and Kenta, and he was surrounded by classmates who would rat him out in a second, but his grades never declined. It was the same with almost all of their classes, and it stumped more than a few teachers.

For the first time in their respective careers, they encountered troublemakers who weren't dumb slackers, but intelligent and hard-working boys. Most were almost totally unfamiliar with even the concept, but Nami Asaji had met the type before, in her very first teaching job. Even so, Takato, Kazu and Kenta, especially Kazu, surprised even her on a regular basis.

By the time lunch had rolled around, things were pretty much back to normal.

"I'm telling you, man, there's something really weird going on around here. Those drawings on the football field are just like crop circles, and those are made by aliens!"

Yep, back to normal.

"You guys are way off base." a boy in a green shirt said, pointing his spork at "Alien Boy". "There's no such thing as aliens; it was really a ghost! And that dinosaur the principal said he saw over the weekend? It was a ghost dinosaur."

"Okay...but how did a ghost put that big dent in the wall outside?" "Alien Boy's" red-shirted friend asked.

"Some ghosts have the ability to move things, and even hit people! They're the ones you hear about choking people, pushing them down stairs, pulling their hair and flinging furniture across the room. I can't remember what they're called, but they do exist!" "Ghost Boy" insisted.

"I think they're called 'Poultryguests', or something like that." "Alien Boy" scratched his chin in thought.

"Ah, poltergeist, that's it!"

"Isn't that a movie? Like, three or four of 'em, I think."

"Yeah, but it's based on true events."

"Oh, whatever." the lone girl at the table, Ayaka, waved the boys off.

"What? Google it, you'll see!"

At his desk two rows over, Takato stared at his four classmates, head cocked slightly to the left. He then looked at both Kazu and Kenta, who wore similar expressions.

"And people around here have the nerve to call _us_ crazy..." Kazu shook his head and took a large gulp from his milk carton.

"Uh, don't _we_ call us crazy?" Kenta scratched his cheek lightly.

"Yeah, but they don't know that." Kazu chuckled.

The other two boys joined in, drawing a couple of odd looks, though most students were used to it.

"Hey, how's the eye?" Kenta asked.

"Meh, it's fine. Swelling's gone down already. Still stings when I raise my eyebrow, though." Kazu then smirked. "Taking a few pointers from 'The Enforcer'?"

"Actually, my dad has a book about boxing that explains proper punching techniques. I just copied what I read." Kenta shrugged and took a bite of his bread.

"Well, it worked. But don't worry, Chumley, you've still got baddest hand in the land."

"Yeah, and you've still got the baddest mouth." Takato replied. "Really, man, what possessed you to say _that_? And to Mr. Hido, of all people?"

"Honestly? Nothing, I knew exactly what I was saying. I didn't mean to go that far with it, but it wasn't just some spontaneous thing. I mean, we all know that no one's going to believe a simple denial, right? So I decided on something a little more convincing; a little more 'Kazu'. I came up with 'We're better than that' and rolled with it." Kazu shrugged.

"We probably could've avoided detention if you had've stuck with 'We didn't do it'." Takato frowned.

"Maybe. Until the rumor mill really got going, anyway. We aren't exactly the most popular guys around, and most people probably thought it was us the moment they laid eyes on it. I think detention is a given when we're not just the primary suspects, but the ONLY suspects." Kazu explained.

"I guess that's a good point, but I don't think you're giving the other kids enough credit. Think about what we've been hearing ever since he stepped foot on the school grounds this morning. As far as the other students are concerned, aliens and ghosts seem to be higher up on the list of possible offenders than us." Takato reasoned.

"Though I'm not exactly proud of it, our 'handiwork' is typically a lot better than the stuff out on the field. Maybe we aren't the only ones who see that?" Kenta ventured, looking around see that, while almost everyone was sharing theories about what happened, no one was casting looks or pointing fingers their way.

"I guess you're right." Kazu conceded, also looking around and making the same observation as Kenta. "Wow, that kinda sucks. Maybe we really could've gotten out of detention!" the boy hung his head in despair. "Sorry, guys."

"Meh, what's done is done, so don't mention it. I mean it, don't, or I might have to hit you again." Takato said with a small smirk, which Kazu mimicked.

"You are all wrong." a low, monotonous, though obviously feminine voice called, silencing everyone in the room.

As one, the students turned to look at the person who sat in the desk that occupied the shadowed back corner of the room just behind the first window. They saw the poster-child for the Gothic Lolita style. Pale skin, long black hair, frilly black dress, complete with knee-length skirt and red ribbons tied into bows on the chest and arms. White, possibly thigh-high socks and simple black pumps completed the package. In short, she looked so out of place in the classroom that it was a complete and utter mystery as to how she managed to go unnoticed for the majority of the day, by both students and teachers alike.

A couple of male students were damn-near sitting on the girl and still hadn't noticed her. The shriek they unleashed when they turned around and saw her was priceless.

"Miyamoto Sayuri." Takato mumbled, being the only person in the room to remember her name.

Apparently, she heard him, as she immediately turned her gaze to him and cocked her head to the side a little.

"We're wrong, eh? Well, care to enlighten us?" "Ghost Boy" sneered.

"Very well. It was not a ghost, an alien, a dinosaur, or any combination of the three that was responsible for the odd happenings on these grounds. No, what we are dealing with is a far greater and more malicious force...I fear that demons have descended upon this school." Sayuri said, still keeping her eyes focused on Takato.

Needless to say, it made him quite uncomfortable. Sure, she was cute and all, but she was also just about the creepiest person Takato had ever met. And that wasn't even factoring in her apparent obsession with the supernatural.

"Demons? Come on." "Ghost Boy" scoffed, though it was plain to see that the prospect scared him. "If it was demons, wouldn't they have hurt someone by now?"

"How do you know that they haven't?" Sayuri countered, finally looking away from Takato.

"...Come to think of it, I haven't seen Hikaru for over a week now." another male student said.

"I thought he had the flu?"

"Who gets the flu in the middle of Spring?"

"The demons got him!" a female student cried out, then fainted at her desk.

Other students actually started to sweat in fear, and some of them even had tears in their eyes.

"W-Wait, if it really was d-demons...how did they get here? I mean, don't they have to be, I don't know, summoned, or something?"

"Not in all cases, but I do believe they were conjured here."

"By who?"

"It is not 'who', but 'what'. The next time I tell you that the food here is tainted, perhaps you should listen."

"The spud balls? We thought you were just saying that because they make people sick!"(16)

And with that, those who hadn't finished their lunch promptly dumped it. Those that had finished it immediately felt the need to purge and rushed to the restrooms.

"What is this? I don't even..." once again, even Kazu was speechless.

"There's something tainted around here, alright...but, for once, it's not the food." Kenta couldn't help by laugh at the stuff he was hearing.

"Maybe there's something in the water, you know? I've heard that it's drinks that are most often drugged..." Kazu stared at the milk in his hand, then shrugged and downed the rest of it in one go.

"...I'd like to go back to my own dimension, now. You know, the one where everyone ISN'T nuckin' futs?" Takato pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked over to see that Sayuri was staring at him again. 'Or really, really creepy...'

For nearly two full minutes, Takato held the girl's gaze, staring right back into her eyes just as she did his. In that time, he found that either she was blinking at the exact same time as him, or she wasn't blinking at all. Neither made him feel any better, but he didn't want to just look away, as he thought it would be rude. So, he gave her a small wave and a friendly little smile.

The effect was unexpected. Sayuri's eyes widened and Takato swore he saw her cheeks turn a light pink before she averted her gaze. However, she did give him a sort of shy half-wave in return.

Feeling that he could now turn away, Takato did so, only to see Kazu and Kenta sporting smirks that he knew meant nothing good. There would be severe teasing and taunting in the near future, that much was certain.

"So, got a new girlfriend, eh 'Kato?" as usual, Kazu would be the one to kick things off.

XXXX

And there it is. I feel really good about this one. Had a lot of fun writing it. but I wanna know what the readers think. Looking forward to hearing from the canon-sticklers, too. I tried to keep everyone in-character, and I think I did a pretty good job, though some characters have had their traits exaggerated just a bit. Of course, this excludes Takato, as the change in his character and background is pretty much THE key component in this story. Even so, I have tried to keep as much "Takatoness" in him as I could.

And speaking of backgrounds, I revealed a little bit more about Takato's here. In canon, his background, as well as pretty much everyone else's, isn't really explored at all. So, as far as I'm concerned, I've got a clean slate to work with on that front. I mean sure, there are somethings I can't do with some characters, but that's a given anyway.

I mentioned this before, but since it's been a while, I'll say it again: this story does NOT take place in the same timeframe as the show. I'm not going to outright say what year it is; I'll leave you guys to guess based on the hints I pepper into the story.

Also, you'll notice that, during the Gorillamon fight, did away with some of the outright stupid dialogue.

"We played the game together!"

Yeah, remember? I called you a boring brute of a digimon, then made my little Terriermon digivolve to Champion level and blast the ever loving shit out of you. He even made you dance! Good times, good times.

(1) Witnesses: Never around when you're being chased by a psychopath, always around when you set something on fire.

(2) In canon, it was first shown that Terriermon blasted Gorillamon in the face deleted him. Later, it was revealed that it was Gargomon who did the ass-kicking. For this fic, I've gone with the former. It was a different battle that saw Terriermon digivolve and go "Bulletstorm" on someone's ass, which will be detailed via flashback in the next chapter.

(3) Remember, actual roars in this fic, none of that "GRAAARGH!" bullshit.

(4) Don't know how long Henry's been at it in canon, but here it's been six years, so he started as a seven year old.

(5) No offense meant to anyone who is indeed tall, white and hairy. I'm tall, black and hairy. Is there a club for tall and hairy people? I'd join. We could share stories about trying to get into little econobox-type cars, and what types of shirts are least likely to pull on our body hair everytime we move. I mean, I'm not _that_ hairy, but...Let's move on.

(6) Actually, I didn't get that from an anime. But, I don't know of all the anime out there, many exclusive to Japan at the moment. So who's to say that some part of that little speech isn't in one of them?

(7) The way I see it, the "Bunny Blast" can be used as both tiny pellets to conserve energy, or a concentrated blast for more damage. I'll probably do this with most attacks from most digimon, allowing them to be altered to have less/more power or sometimes even altogether different effects. I think this'll spice things up a bit, since digimon aren't like pokémon, which just learn different attacks as they grow. Most digimon are limited to just two or three attacks, though I have seen a couple with, like, seven or something.

(8) Remember, this fic is rated M for reasons beyond language and innuendo. It won't always be just data spurting out of stumps and severed limbs.

(9) Can't really remember any instances in the anime where this is apparent, but there's an official-looking artbook floating around the web, and Guilmon's page clearly shows his claws bending like fingers, with one functioning like a thumb. That's good enough for me.

(10) I've got others, but this was the only one that I felt fit Kenta's character.

(11) This is based on a real dish that my uncle makes all the time. I like to call it the "I would say 'kill it with fire', but it looks like someone already tried and failed". "Get it away from me" when I want to save time. Other popular titles include "Bury it on Mars", "Is it still alive?", "Nuke it from orbit; it's the only way to be sure", "Ten bucks if you don't gag", "Toilet breaker" and of course the old standby "WTF?"

And to anyone who actually does like meals of this type...You's a nasty mothafucka.

(12) Seriously, I can't do it. At the lower heat levels(1-3), the cops just can't keep up for significant periods of time. At the higher ones, I keep running into spike strips, and those Rhino SUVs keep running into me. And it really sucks, because the boss himself will likely be a cakewalk.

(13) Have no idea what their actual ages are, but in this fic, Takato's biological father, Mei and Takehiro were all childhood friends of the same age. And though anyone should be able to do the math(believe me, if I can, anyone can), I'll save you time and tell you that Mei had Takato when she was twenty-two.

(14) Guys, you probably know the one I'm talking about. Where the woman(mother, girlfriend, wife)looks at you out of the corner of a half-lidded eye, just waiting for you to make eye-contact so the message can be sent clearly. It's the kind of thing that makes the hair stand up on the back off your neck.

(15) Original JapaneseEnglish translation of SkullGreymon's Dark Shot attack. I'll also be doing this with several other digimon, using the original translations of their attacks for new ones.

(16) In episode five of the show, when Takato and Jeri are cleaning up the classroom floor, Takato mentions something about demons being conjured by spud balls. I decided to expand upon that and have some fun with it.

Well, I think that covers just about everything.

I'll tell you now, I've got no idea when the next update will come(surprise, surprise). Per chapter, writing times for this fic pale in comparison to Black Flames, so I really should be able to get them out faster. Even though this chapter is huge, it only took about three weeks to write, give or take a day or two. This is compared to three months, or more, for a chapter of the same size for Black Flames. You'd think it would be the other way around, since I've put far more restrictions on myself with this story.

Anywho, thanks to my readers for being so patient. I look forward to your feedback! And as usual, if you've got questions, ask away.

Jason Out!


	8. Situational Awareness

Hello, friends, fans and lurkers! I have returned, and I've brought an old friend with me!

Everything that can be said about my infrequent updates has already been said, so I'll just say the Idea Factory was acting up again, and leave it at that.

Not much else to say here, so I'll let you guys and gals do what you came here to do.

On with the story!

XXXX

(End of the Schoolday - 3:34pm)

"For the last time: I don't even know her!" Takato insisted, obviously frustrated.

Kazu and Kenta, as expected, had been pestering him ever since lunch, and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

"But you remembered her name; her _full_ name." Kazu pointed out, for the twentieth time.

"Shioda Hirokazu, Kitagawa Kenta. I remember your full names, too; wanna read too much into that as well?"

"That's completely different." Kenta said. "You see and talk to us for hours on end pretty much every day, both in and out of school. And that's been the case for three years. When's the last time you talked to Sayuri?"

"I said 'hello' to her when we came into class this morning." Takato replied.

"See? Why is it that everyone else in the room, Ms. Asaji included, didn't notice her, but YOU did?" Kazu asked, going into full "detective mode".

"And speaking of Ms. Asaji, when she took attendance and overlooked Sayuri, you pointed out that she was present." Kenta added.

"Everytime I see her, she's always alone. She never talks to anyone, and nobody talks to her. She's an outcast, just like us."

"She's an outcast by choice; she doesn't WANT to hang around anyone." Kazu said.

"Are we any different? Before Henry, when have we even thought of extending an official invitation to join the group?" Takato countered.

Both Kazu and Kenta looked contemplative, stroking their chins as they looked up at the ceiling.

"Huh...He's right, you know." Kenta said.

"So what, does that mean you want to invite Sayuri? I'm sorry, dude, but I can't back that up." Kazu shook his head. "She may be less girly than, say, Jeri, but she's still way too creepy for my taste."

"Just like you're way too weird for everyone else's tastes?" Kenta snickered.

"..." Kazu sent a scathing look Takato's way.

"What? Don't look at me like that, he's got a point. According to most, you're too weird, Kenta's too nerdy, and I'm too mean."

"Okay, I get the weird and nerdy, but you, mean?" Kazu scratched his head, ignoring the look Kenta was giving him for the "nerdy" comment.

"My reputation followed me from elementary school, which isn't surprising, considering that a lot of the kids that went to my school back then go here now. And, since I don't bother saying more than 'hi' to anyone else around here, I really haven't given them much reason to think any different of me." Takato shrugged.

"It doesn't help that you've beaten up eight people in the past year." Kenta remarked.

"All of whom were bullies." Takato quickly pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. All it shows is that you don't shy away from fights, and that you can take on pretty much any student in the school and win. Combine that with the rep that your past 'breathe too close to me and I'll hurt you' attitude, and you see why everyone thinks you're mean." Kazu explained.

"I wasn't _that_ bad..." Takato mumbled.

"You once knocked me out cold for poking you after the teacher asked me to wake you up. You weren't even asleep, you were just brooding!"(1)

"You startled me..."

"Fine. Then what about that time our kickball rolled over to you, and you launched it right at my face when I asked if you wanted to play?"

"..." Takato had nothing.

"Uh-huh. That was pure malice." Kazu nodded to himself.

"Yeah, well, that was then, this is now. I still don't see how beating up a few bullies qualifies me as being 'mean'. If anything, I should be freakin' hero around here!" Takato scowled

"I don't think you're mean..." a monotonous feminine voice replied from behind the trio.

"GAH!" Kazu and Kenta yelped in unison and immediately pressed their bodies against opposite sides of the hallway.

Takato just flinched ever so slightly, then turned to see none other than Sayuri Miyamoto staring at him just like she had during lunch(2). He couldn't help but lock eyes with her, and immediately noticed two things upon doing so. One, the girl was very short; four-foot-seven at the most. Two, the irides of her eyes were such a dark shade of brown that they looked black unless light was shining directly onto them, giving the appearance of aniridia.

After a couple seconds of pure awkwardness, at least for Takato, the boy finally replied.

"Well thanks, Sayuri. Nice to see that the mob mentality in this place hasn't gotten to everyone." Takato paused for a second, then shrugged and turned to Kazu. "You know Kazu and Kenta, right?"

"...I know _of_ them." Sayuri replied.

"Figured as much." Takato sighed. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you a question."

"What?" Sayuri's voice came out like a whisper as her cheeks turned pink.

Takato rose an eyebrow at that, but decided not to point it out, lest he give his friends more ammunition.

"What you said during lunch...do you really think demons are behind what's been going on here?"

"...I think that, if demons really did exist, they would have better things to do than torment a school filled with some of the most gullible people in the entire city." Sayuri answered.

This caused all three boys' eyes to widen in shock.

"So...this whole time, you've just been messing with everyone?" Kazu asked. He was starting to like this girl.

"More or less."

"But you sounded so...serious..." Kenta furrowed his brow.

"Things like sarcasm often aren't conveyed properly when you speak like I do." Sayuri gave a small shrug.

"So you don't really believe in all that stuff, then?" Takato asked.

"Not really. My interest in it stems from the beliefs of others moreso than my own."

"Huh..." Takato still didn't fully understand what she meant, but decided save any other questions for a later time. If they didn't hurry, they'd be late for detention. With Ms. Uzari. "Well, we're going to be late for detention if we don't get a move on."

Kazu and Kenta both took a glance at their watches, then yelped and ran off down the hallway towards the detention room. After school detention, with Ms. Uzari, was bad enough without giving the woman an actual reason to go out of her way to torment you.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then, Takato." then, with another half-wave, Sayuri walked down the hall towards the school's front door.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow..." Takato wanted to say something else, maybe offer to eat lunch together sometime. But he just couldn't figure out how to word it without making it sound like something more than it was. "If you ever wanna hang out with me and the guys, you can find us at the park playground after school..." he mumbled to himself. "Bah, that's crap."

"See? I told you he talks to himself!" a male student whispered to his friend as they walked by Takato in the hall.

"You told me? Please. Everybody knows that Matsuki's a psycho." the friend replied, also whispering.

"What was that?" Takato asked, glaring daggers at the two boys.

"Oh! Hey, T-Takato, I, uh, I mean we d-didn't see you th-there..." the taller boy, whom Takato now recognized as Reiji "Ghost Boy" Fuda, stammered.

"Really? Well that's odd, seeing as how you looked right at me just a second ago," Takato then looked at the..._wider_ of the two, Hitani "Alien Boy" Keido, "and I heard you say my name."

"No, no, I was, uh...looking at that poster!" Reiji pointed enthusiastically at the so-called "motivational" poster that was taped to the wall next to Takato.

"Uh-huh..." Takato glanced at the poster and his frown deepened. It was hardly eye-catching, and at the angle from which Reiji had been looking, Takato's body would've been blocking his view of the poster anyway.

Reiji began to sweat, knowing that Takato didn't buy his admittedly lame excuse.

Hitani wasn't faring much better. "I-It wasn't your name I said, oh no!" he gulped. "I said, uh, 'Natsuri'! Yeah, Natsuri...She's my aunt...kinda crazy if you ask me."

Takato's eyes narrowed a bit, then he nodded, as if he actually believed what he'd been told.

"Well, I could've mistaken 'Natsuri' for 'Matsuki'. Understandable, seeing as how you two were whispering." Takato smirked when he saw the two boys sigh in relief. "That's what I would've said if I believed you." he walked up to them, biting back a chuckle as the two boys backpeddled until their backs were against the wall. "See, I never specified which name I heard you say. You assumed that I heard 'Matsuki', even though you just called me 'Takato' a second ago...I don't know about you, but I find that kinda strange."

"..." the two boys looked at each other, then pushed off the wall to get around Takato and proceeded to dash to the exit, not daring to look back.

Takato made no effort to catch them, choosing to let out a snort of contempt before heading off to his "appointment".

(Afterschool Detention Room - 3:44pm)

"Ah, Mr. Matsuki, so glad you finally decided to join us." the normal detention "warden", Mr. Kizani, greeted Takato as he walked through the door. "For a minute there, I thought you weren't going to show up."

"The thought crossed my mind." Takato replied.

"Good thing you didn't listen to it." Mr. Kizani smirked. "You're smarter than your presence here suggests."

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm here." Takato sent a pointed glare at Kazu, who was sitting at a desk right up front.

"Yes, I know all about how Mr. Shioda single-handedly sent all three of you here. The other staff and I had a pretty good laugh about it." Mr. Kizani turned to Kazu, who was resting his head on his arms. "You might be interested to know that Mr. Miyagi does an excellent impression of you, Mr. Shioda."

"I know." Kazu smiled a little.

Toji Miyagi was easily the most liked teacher in the entire school, with Ms. Asaji being the only one even close to his level of popularity with the students. He was very laid back, almost to the point of having an altogether aversion to seriousness. No one was surprised to find out that he moonlighted as a stand-up comedian.

Kazu and Mr. Miyagi had a particularly special relationship, stemming mostly from the fact that Kazu's father happened to be one of the man's best friends. It also helped that Kazu and his group were a never-ending source of new material.

"Well, I know you haven't been here in a while, Mr. Matsuki, but I trust that you still remember the afterschool detention procedures?"

"Yeah, Mr. Kizani, I know." Takato sighed, then dropped his backpack behind the desk, beside Kazu's and Kenta's. He then unzipped a compartment on it and put the contents of his pockets inside.

In afterschool detention, students weren't allowed to have anything that would qualify as "entertainment". No paper, no writing utensils, no electronic devices, no reading material and so on. Even the room itself was devoid of anything stimulating. There were no windows, the walls were stark white, the floor was spotless, and even the desk for the "warden" was as plain as could be.

After Takato had relinquished everything that could possibly provide any kind of entertainment, including his goggles, he took a seat at the desk closest to the door, and farthest from Kazu.

"Well, I'm off, gentlemen." Mr. Kizani said as he stood up. "Ms. Uzari will be any minute now, and despite you're being here indicating the contrary, I know you'll stay put."

"You got it, Mr. K." Kazu gave the teacher and thumbs-up.

"Oh, and Ms. Uzari takes shoes now, so I suggest you not give her a reason to."

"Shoes?" Kenta rose an eyebrow.

"Someone in the last batch of students she had for detention found something to do with his shoes to pass the time." Mr. Kizani informed.

"Tch, figures. One idiot ruins things for everyone else." Kazu scoffed.

"...Dude, you've been that idiot I don't know how many times." Kenta remarked as he used his shirt to clean his glasses, idly wondering if Ms. Uzari would take them, too.

"Oh, so I'm an idiot now?" Kazu demanded, eyes narrowed.

"You said it, not me." Kenta replied, looking very pleased with himself.

"..." Kazu remained silent, realizing that he had set himself up for that one and didn't have a comeback at the ready.

Takato made no effort to hide his amusement.

"This is your fault. All your fault." Kazu then proceeded to brood.

"Technically, it's your fault." Takato chuckled.

"How's that?"

"I may have gotten Kenta to put his mind to jokes, but you did the same for me." Takato readily admitted that he had a sense of humor on par with a brick before Kazu came along.

"...Have I told you that I hate it when you make valid points?" Kazu frowned.

"Only on days that end with 'y'."

The sound of the door closing brought the three teens' attention to the front of the room, and what they saw caused the color to drain from their faces.

For the next few seconds, the sound of heels clicking on the tiled floor was all that echoed off the blank walls. Just by looking at her, you'd never guess this was the most intimidating member of the school staff, according to students and teachers alike. When students would complain about the woman to their parents, most envisioned a crabby middle-aged woman with wrinkles, frown lines, possibly a wart or two, and a gigantic chip on her shoulder. Huge "coke-bottle" glasses optional. Few managed to hide their looks of surprise and even out and out shock when they saw a very tall and very attractive woman in her mid twenties at school events and parent/teacher meetings.

Her long brown hair was always pulled back and tied into a simple bun, she always wore modest brown reading glasses, and she was the only member of the school staff who wore a "uniform". The only time her outfit didn't consist of a white blouse, brown knee-length skirt, dark stockings and black heels was when it was too cold for such attire. In those cases, the blouse was traded for a sweater, the skirt and stockings for slacks, and the heels for loafers. Combined with her fair complexion, deceptively delicate facial features and hourglass figure, Maya Uzari pulled off the "Hot Librarian" look perfectly.

"I know that I haven't had the..._pleasure_ of your company for a while, but I trust that you remember the ground rules?" her voice was soft and even. Again, hardly what one would expect considering the numerous "legends" surrounding her.

But the boys knew that it was just a front. They could _feel_ the ominous undertones, and it was something akin to survival instincts that made them automatically sit properly in their seats and straighten their postures.

"Yes, ma'am." Takato answered, surprising even himself when he didn't stutter.

"Then why were you talking when I entered the room?" there it was, the sharp edge and forcefulness they had come to associate exclusively with this single woman.

"I...It's Kazu's fault." Takato pointed at said boy.

Kazu just glared.

"Don't look at me like that. At this point, if Japan is invaded by the Mole People and their Martian allies tomorrow, I'm going to blame you for it."

The quick glance to gauge Kazu's reaction caused Takato to miss the tiny smirk that graced Ms. Uzari's lips for a fraction of a second.

"Are you done, Matsuki?" the woman asked as she placed a book, a notepad and a cup of coffee down on the "warden's desk".

"Yes, ma'am." Takato gulped, his overactive mind running wild and creating a scenario in which the woman pulled out a rather large pair of scissors and "confiscated" his tongue to keep him from talking.

"Good. Now, for the next two hours, I expect absolute silence." Ms. Uzari said as she sat down and opened her book.

The boys just nodded and sat like statues, hesitant to do so much as scratch their noses.

Of the three, Takato fared the best. His imagination alone was enough to keep him occupied, though Ms. Uzari and those kitchen shears kept popping up in his daydreams.

Kazu and Kenta weren't so lucky as to be "gifted" with such a mind, and found Ms. Uzari herself to be the only thing in the room that was even remotely interesting. Of course, with them being at the age where girls were starting to look like more than just daily annoyances, their daydreams were a bit more on the perverse side of outlandishness. The woman may have terrified them in ways they previously thought only their mothers could, but she was easily the finest specimen of the opposite sex they had ever seen outside of a movie or magazine.

Takato fantasized about Ms. Uzari cutting out his tongue, slathering his face in makeup, shaving his head bald, and parading him around the school for everyone to laugh at. Kazu's daydreams involved Ms. Uzari looking him straight in the eye while she cut her own clothes off with scissors that looked remarkably similar to the ones in Takato's "daymares". And Kenta...Well, as soon as his thoughts turned "naughty", he was immediately brought back to the past weekend and ended up actually fainting on the spot.

Ms. Uzari looked up at the sound of Kenta's head falling onto his desk, one eyebrow raised curiously.

"...Is he alright?" she asked no one in particular, not caring which of the two conscious boys answered her.

"We, uh, don't really know." Kazu chuckled nervously.

"This is the second time he's done that today, and the third time this week." Takato shrugged.

"Right..." Ms. Uzari was in the middle of mental debate about whether or not to care about Kitagawa's possible concussion and/or the large lump that was sure to form within the next few minutes.

While she did this often, she didn't know that it caused her normally stoic visage to morph into a sort of confused pout. It was an expression that could cause even the most faithful of married men to do a double-take.

Takato and Kazu shared a look as they both squirmed in their seats slightly.

Fortunately for them, the pout disappeared once Ms. Uzari reached a decision. If Kitagawa shared even an ounce of the resilience of his two friends, especially Matsuki, a bump on the head like that was nothing. Usually, she'd see to it that the boy was awakened, but she was in a somewhat good mood at the moment, and remembered that Shioda was the one who snored, not Kitagawa.

When she looked back down to her book without another word, both Takato and Kazu blinked in confusion.

"Uh, Ms. Uzari?" Takato ventured as he raised his right hand to get the woman's attention.

"What is it?" came the curt reply, accompanied by a "light" glare.

"Should someone wake Kenta up?" Takato almost squeaked, looking like he wanted nothing more than to hide under his desk.

"If you want to."

"...So, we can take naps?" Takato perked up at the prospect, his previous fear forgotten for the moment.

"As long as you don't snore and/or talk in your sleep." Ms. Uzari said, her tone indicating that her patience was wearing thin.

Takato looked at Kazu and snickered quietly, then laid his head down on his arms and hoped for dreams that didn't involve Ms. Uzari...At least, not if she was wielding scissors.

Kazu just scowled and muttered, "So unfair."

But Ms. Uzari's seemingly superhuman ears still picked up the noise.

"I hardly think it's fair that I have to spend two afterschool hours a day _babysitting_ you three for the next two weeks. Contrary to the rumors, I do have a life outside of the school grounds." Ms. Uzari's glared hardened at the mention of the rumors surrounding her, several of which she knew the boy she was speaking to had started.

Kazu gulped, knowing exactly what that look meant, and wisely chose to keep his mouth shut for the remainder of his time in the detention room.

And for the next two hours, silence reigned, challenged only by the occasional turn of a book page and the quiet, rhythmic breathing of two sleeping teens.

Let it be known that Hirokazu Shioda _abhors_ silence. Comfortable silence, awkward silence, deafening silence, Dead Silence(3); he hated all varieties. He didn't like being able to hear his clothing rustle with every movement. He didn't like being able to hear himself breathing. And he most certainly didn't like not being able to do anything about it.

Fortunately, he had his fantasies to keep him company. Unfortunately, Ms. Uzari was far from oblivious to his, ahem, _less-than-appropriate_ thoughts. The staring, the blushing and the heavier breathing; it was all pretty hard to miss.

However, Kazu's breathing had another effect on the sleeping Kenta. Somehow, the sound permeated his dreams, turning them into nightmares like the ones that had plagued him ever since Sunday. And just as Ms. Uzari snapped her book shut and started to stand up to confront Kazu, Kenta awoke with a shriek that caused Takato to topple over, desk and all, as he was violently ejected from dreamland.

Thoughts of scolding Kazu for his perversion banished for the time being, Ms. Uzari walked over to Kenta, who was now curled into a ball on the floor and whimpering.

'Saved by the scream.' Kazu sighed in relief, knowing exactly what Ms. Uzari was about to do and say.

"What the hell, man?" Takato said as he extricated himself from the desk and stood up.

"Language, Matsuki." Ms. Uzari gave him a quick glare. "And pick up that desk."

Takato did as instructed, but winced and rubbed the right side of his torso with his free hand. He'd fallen on the armrest on the right side of the desk, and felt like he might have cracked a rib, maybe two.

His pained grimace didn't escape Ms. Uzari's notice.

"Are you alright, Matsuki?" the woman asked in a rare moment of giving a damn.

"Ah, might've fractured a rib or two; nothing to worry about." Takato waved her off and sat down again, flinching when he pressed on the injured area too hard. 'Yep, definitely cracked. I think it's the seventh, and the eighth is at least bruised.'

"...You say broken bones are nothing to worry about?" like all the other staff members, Ms. Uzari knew that Takato was into both "extreme" sports and mixed martial arts. He'd come to school with casts and/or bandages many times in the past.

But that still didn't mean she could let him just brush off an injury like that.

"Fractured, not broken. Believe me, if they were broken, I'd still be on the floor." Takato said, reminding himself to take shallower breaths to avoid expanding his ribcage too much.

"Doesn't change the fact that you should go to the infirmary." Ms. Uzari insisted.

Takato almost chuckled, but remembered how painful that would be. "Sorry, but I seriously doubt Mr. Osore will be any help. He's great with fevers, upset stomachs and small scrapes; but show him something like the bruise that I'm sure is forming right now, and he'll be the first one to call an ambulance."

Mr. Osore, the school "nurse", had this "thing" about injured children; it was why he applied for the job in the first place. He hated seeing a child in anything less than perfect health. That said, anything more than a minor cut would have him in hysterics. Takato and his group had quite a bit of personal experience with that. Once, Kenta had tripped while running to second base during a kickball game, and a small rock had torn a good-sized gash in his left forearm. When Mr. Osore got a look at it, he immediately scooped Kenta up in his arms and ran him to the infirmary, screaming at people to get out of his way. All the while, Kenta's eyes were wide with terror and confusion, sort of like one of the school rabbits when you picked them up too quickly.

To this day, that single event remained one of the most hilarious things Takato and Kazu had ever witnessed. But neither of them were in a hurry to experience it firsthand.

"You know he knows what he's talking about, Ms. Uzari." Kenta said as he stood up, still visibly trembling.

"Yeah, I just need to get home." Takato gingerly stood from the desk, making sure to use only his legs to do so. "My dad's perfectly capable of patching me up himself."

Before getting into MMA, Takato's stepfather had been training to be a paramedic, and found that those skills lent themselves very well to his hobby. Intimate knowledge of the human body made both fixing it and breaking it relatively simple matters.

Ms. Uzari gave a sigh of resignation. While she had never seen him get injured in person, she knew, from Mr. Osore, that Takato could be incredibly stubborn about getting treatment at school. And forget taking him to a hospital, unless you had him restrained Hannibal Lecter style.

"Fine, you're free to go." Ms. Uzari said as she waved the boys off dismissively.

"See you tomorrow, Ms. Uzari." Takato replied, visibly grimacing as he stooped to pick up his backpack.

"Don't rub it in." the woman grumbled as she watched Kazu and Kenta file out before their friend.

Takato let out a low grunt before walking out the door. He actually resented that remark somewhat. They had all been perfectly cooperative and obedient the entire time, as they always were in her presence. Then again, perhaps that was the problem. Not only was she being forced to stay behind to watch over them, their excellent behavior left her without anyone to torment for her own amusement. Even with her book, she was probably just as bored they were, if not moreso.

'Still doesn't give her the right to be such a bitch.' Takato actually flinched at the sudden feeling of dread that settled in the pit of his stomach.

Chancing a look over his shoulder, he saw that Ms. Uzari was standing in the doorframe of the detention room and giving him "The Look". His legs quickened their pace automatically, carrying Takato away from the woman who was second only to his mother when it came to inducing primal terror.

'If she can read minds, I don't even want to think about how screwed we are.' the boy gulped.

(Matsuki Residence)

Takato entered his home just as Mei was walking by with an empty tray. As she turned and prepared to greet him, she noticed his pained expression and the fact that he was holding his right arm against his torso.

"What'd you do?" she asked, sitting the tray down on the floor against the wall.

"Hi, Mom. My day actually kinda sucked, but thanks for asking!"

"Shirt." Mei ordered.

With a slight frown, Takato complied, lifting up his shirt to expose the reddish-purple bruise that had formed over the site of his injury.

"How bad?" while she did have some decent training under her belt, Mei wasn't nearly as well-acquainted with bumps, bruises and breaks as either her son or her husband.

"One cracked for sure, and another at least bruised." Takato replied.

"Was it a fight?"

Takato shook his head. "No, I just fell over in my desk during detention and landed on the armrest."

Mei's eyes instantly snapped away from the bruise. "Detention?" she demanded with a glare.

"The Look" cowed Takato into spilling his guts barely a second later.

"It was Kazu's fault, I swear!" the boy all but squeaked. "When we got to school, we noticed that everyone was crowded around the football field, so we went to go take a look. We found that the field had been vandalized, and Mr. Hido blamed us for it as soon as he saw us. Then Kazu got mouthy and now all three of us have two hours of after-school detention every day for the next two weeks!"

Mei shook her head and sighed. "I don't know why you insist on hanging around with that boy and his sidekick." actually, she was one of the few people who DID know, but it still puzzled her at times. "Takehiro!"

"Yeah, hon?" Takehiro seemed to appear out of thin air behind his wife, actually causing both her and their son to jump and look at him strangely. "What?"

Even after twenty-seven years of friendship, and five years of marriage, Mei still wasn't used to the way Takehiro just seemed to pop up whenever he was needed. The habit had proved itself invaluable over the years, but it was still a little unsettling.

"Your son hurt himself. Again." Mei said, then picked up the previously discarded tray and went back into the kitchen with it.

Under normal circumstances, Takato was "Their son". But when he did something stupid that resulted in an injury, he was "Takehiro's son". Inversely, when his report card came in with all A's and B's, he was "Mei's son".

"Technically, I didn't hurt myself; I was startled and fell." Takato pointed out. It had been a while since he'd been injured as a direct result of his own conscious actions, and he felt that was something to be proud of.

"Mm-hm...I'll take your word for it." Takehiro shrugged. "Let's go get that bandaged." and with that, he placed his hand on Takato's back and firmly guided him up the stairs. He was actually quite surprised when his son didn't offer any resistance, a departure from his normal response to bandages.

(The Next Day - 8:14am)

Takato yawned for the fifth time in as many minutes as he walked alongside his two friends.

"How late did you go to bed last night?" Kazu asked after yawning himself. 'Maybe yawning IS contagious.'

"I actually went to bed pretty early. You know how my mom is when I get injured, she won't let me do anything. Unfortunately, that led to me waking up at five in the morning." actually, Takato had set his alarm clock to wake him up at five, so he could have some time with Guilmon to make up for not visiting him yesterday.

"Ah, I know what that's like." Kazu said. "How are your ribs, anyway? You don't look like you're hurt." since they'd met up, Takato had stretched several times without so much as a wince.

"Fine, surprisingly enough." Takato poked the afflicted area somewhat forcefully. "I don't feel any pain at all." though he didn't show it, that fact alarmed him. In his experience, the pain from bruised/fractured ribs lasted for weeks on end. But with this injury, the pain had started to subside mere hours after it had happened.

Perhaps his D-Arc was doing something beyond just "downloading" information into his brain? If that was the case, then maybe Henry had experienced something similar.

"I mean this in the nicest way possible, Chumley; you're a freak." Kazu chuckled and pointed to his shiner. "You can heal from cracked ribs in a day, while I can't even heal from a black eye! So unfair."

"..." unable to think of a proper retort, Takato settled for glaring at his friend.

Suddenly, he felt something tug on the right leg of his pants, near the pocket on his thigh. Whipping around, he expected to see some little kid or even a dog. Instead, nothing but an oddly deserted sidewalk greeted him.

Startled by Takato's sudden movement, Kazu and Kenta both gave the boy questioning looks when they, too, saw nothing to be alarmed about.

"You okay, Chumley?" Kazu asked.

"...Yeah, it's just...I could've sworn I felt something pulling on my pants." looking down at said pants, Takato didn't see anything amiss, nor did he see anything for them to brush against or snag on.

Of course, just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it's not there. Had he looked a little closer, Takato would've seen a slight distortion in the air, like a heat shimmer, poking out from behind a telephone pole about twenty feet away. Two of them, actually, though one was better hidden than the other.

"It's all in your head, as usual. Now come on, we're cutting it close as it is." Kazu said before jogging off down the street, followed closely by Kenta.

"Yeah...guess so." Takato mumbled, taking one last look around before heading off as well.

Once all three boys were out of sight, the two "heat shimmers" _spoke_.

_"You fool!" _one of them hissed in a high-pitched, somewhat nasally voice. _"What in Goddramon's name were you thinking?"_

_"What? I just trying to get his D-Arcs!" _the other replied, it's voice a bit deeper, but overall similar to the first.

_"I know _what_ you were doing, you dolt; what I want to know is _WHY_!" _the first shimmer all but shrieked, then suddenly moved closer to the other shimmer. And with a sound akin to two pieces of paper being rubbed together, both vanished into thin air.

_"Hey, what're you doing? We're gonna lose him!" _the other shimmer complained as they reappeared in a darkened alley about half a mile away.

Then, almost like flipping a light switch, their true forms were shown. Both looked like stereotypical Halloween ghosts, resembling tattered white bed sheets draped over a balloon, or something. However, both had the additions of "arms" and large mouths full of suitably large, dinosaur-like teeth. The only difference between the two was that one was wearing an almost comically large witch hat, which covered everything above its mouth.

_"He can wait; you and I need to have a little _chat_ first." _the Soulmon said as it slowly advanced on its companion.

Said companion, a Bakemon, floated backwards at the same rate, keeping the distance between them. _"Listen, listen! Getting those D-Arcs would mean we'd both be set for life!"_

_"But Lord Phantomon didn't tell us to get them. If he believed we could, I'm sure he would've told us to."_

_"Whatever." _Bakemon snorted, now standing his ground. _"It doesn't matter who gets them, as long as they're separated from the kid. And I would've had them if you hadn't butted in!"_

_"No, you would've botched it, like you botch _everything_, and would've revealed our presence to him, thus compromising our mission. Do you know what a compromised mission equates to? A failed mission. Do you know what that equates to? A death sentence. And I will NOT get myself deleted because of YOUR screw-ups!"_

_"MY screw-ups? I...You...ARGH, ZOMBIE CLAW!" _a large, ghoulish hand shot out from Bakemon's right "sleeve" as he finally got fed up with his partner's attitude and attacked her.

Soulmon yelped in fright and teleported herself out of the claw's path, leaving it to strike the wall of the building behind her. The attack tore through the solid brick with ease, scoring four deep slash marks.

_"You..." _Soulmon growled as she reappeared next to Bakemon, hat lifted just enough to expose her furiously glowing eyes. _"You little pissant. You dare attack _ME_?" _

_"You're damn right I dare!" _Bakemon snarled back. _"I'm tired of your rotten attitude, and I'm through letting you boss me around!"_

_"Hmph, I don't give you enough credit; you're even dumber than I imagined." _Soulmon mocked as the rest of her body took on the same ethereal purple glow as her eyes. _"You seem to have forgotten your place, so let me remind you of a couple things. One: I was put in charge of the entire horde by Lord Phantomon himself, so I can boss you around all I like. Two: Even if that wasn't the case, I can still do as I please with and to you. This hat isn't just a fashion statement, you worthless waste of data. It means that I'm better than you. It also means that I can do _this_..." _Soulmon's eyes locked with Bakemon's and the light shining from them pulsed brightly for a split second.

Bakemon felt a sudden sense of disorientation, akin to vertigo, and wobbled in midair as he struggled to keep himself afloat. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

Bakemon laughed derisively. _"What, you can make me dizzy? Wow, good for you." _both hands extended from his sleeves and clapped mockingly a few times. _"I think I'm going to start shredding you now." _the ghost digimon grinned maliciously as he brandished his deadly claws.

_"No, you don't think. Not unless I allow it." _Soulmon said calmly.

_"Tch, staring death in the face and still barking; a true bitch if I ever saw one."_

_"Well, you should know that this bitch's bite is FAR worse than her bark." _Soulmon's eyes pulsed once again and Bakemon froze in his tracks.

_"Wha-What? What h-have you d-done?" _Bakemon forced out, finding that even moving his mouth was incredibly difficult.

_"As I said, you don't think unless I allow it. You don't do _anything_ unless I allow it. Do you know what the primary role of a Soulmon is? It's to be the commander of a group of Bakemon, like you. We are the ones who organize your sorry asses, telling you what to do and when to do it. We're the brains to your brawn, and as such, we are gifted with the ability to telepathically control your kind. As of right now, you're my puppet, and I can make you do anything I want."_

_"I...I'll break out o-of th-this...And th-then I'll tear y-you apart!"_

_"Please. The only way you'll accomplish that is if you digivolve right here, right now..." _Soulmon trailed off, her left sleeve coming up to rub her non-existent chin. _"But, stranger things have happened, so why take the chance?"_

Bakemon's right hand, against his will, came up and pointed its index finger right between his eyes. Then, to his horror, it pressed forward until the claw was touching him, and _kept going_. He whimpered as the claw dug into his body, penetrating the sheet-like outer shell and causing a viscous, purple-ish liquid to ooze out and run down his face. As it dripped from his body to the ground, it dispersed into small plumes of data, which were quickly absorbed by Soulmon(4).

_"Perhaps it's time to find out if you really do have a brain." _Soulmon giggled. _"If so, I think I'll make you give yourself a lobotomy. Get rid of that pesky free will of yours and make you into a nice, obedient little sla-!" _the hat-wearing Champion stopped abruptly and looked over to her right, seemingly staring right through the building at some phantom foe. _"Wonderful. Because of you, someone has sensed us." _he eyes stopped glowing as she released Bakemon from her spell. _"Lucky you, you get another chance to prove yourself useful. But make no mistake, the next time things go South because of you, nothing short of Lord Phantomon himself will save you from me." _and with that, Soulmon teleported them both away from the area.

And not a second too soon, as Renamon appeared on the rooftop above immediately after the two Champions had vanished.

'Strange...I know I felt two fairly powerful digimon around here.' the anthropomorphic fox thought, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Her sensory abilities were _never_ off; something had been here.

She leapt down to examine the area more thoroughly, checking for even the slightest traces of energy left behind. Within seconds, her senses led her to the large claw marks left by Bakemon's attack. That told her that a digimon had indeed been there, and that it had been a Virus-type, but didn't provide any clues beyond that. There were literally hundreds of different digimon that could've made marks like that, many of them of them Viruses.

However, it appeared as though whatever it was had teleported as a means to escape her, and that did narrow down the list. There weren't that many digimon who could teleport, and even fewer who could do it so discreetly.

"Hmph, I hope running away isn't all this one can do." Renamon muttered aloud, then took to the rooftops again to resume her patrol of the city. 'There's no reason to bother Rika about this, not when I haven't actually found anything yet.'

(With Takato - 3:34pm)

Marching through the halls of the school towards the detention room, the "Terrible Trio" all had identical scowls on their faces. Having gotten over the circumstances of their sentencing, Takato and Kenta were now thoroughly behind Kazu about the unfairness of the whole situation. Yes, Kazu had been completely out of line, but two weeks of after-school detention, with Ms. Uzari, was nothing short of overkill.

"Matsuki," a familiar male voice called out from behind the three boys, "a word, please."

"Uh, yeah, sure Mr. Hido." Takato turned and walked over to the principal.

Kazu and Kenta made to do the same, but were stopped cold by a glare from the man.

"I said 'Matsuki'." Mr. Hido glared, sending both boys scampering away like squirrels. "Now then, walk with me."

Takato complied without hesitation, though he noticed that he was being led away from the detention room.

"So, um..." the teen rubbed the back of his head nervously, not knowing what to say, or even if he should speak at all.

"I'm going to be blunt with you, Matsuki; I know you and your 'crew' weren't the ones who defaced the football field yesterday."

"Eh? Then why..." Takato paused when Mr. Hido gave him an "are you serious?" deadpan stare. "Kazu, yeah...Nevermind."

"I also know that the punishment I gave you was far too harsh, and I've been told as much by several faculty members. That said, I'm giving you an out."

"What's the catch?" Takato asked immediately. If it seems too good to be true, chances are it isn't.

"You're going to be working for your freedom. Call it 'community service'." Mr. Hido just barely managed to keep a smirk off his face when he saw the boy's shoulders slump.

"Do we at least get to choose what we'll be doing?"

"No."

"Just thought I'd ask. What am I doing, then?"

"You will be feeding the rabbits." Mr. Hido didn't bother hiding his amusement at the look on Takato's face.

"B-But...I HATE those things!"

"Ms. Asaji has told me as much."

Takato's jaw dropped. He never knew the school principal could be so...unflinchingly cruel.

"There has to be something else, anything! Please?"

"Well, if the rabbits are too much for you, you could always just serve your full two weeks of detention. With Ms. Uzari." by now, Mr. Hido was borderline grinning. It was always entertaining to watch the reactions of a person stuck between a rock and a hard place. Doubly so if said person happened to be a child, as they tended to overreact more often.

'Detention, or "community service"...Rabbits or Ms. Uzari...Rodent Hellspawn, or the Devil's Mistress...I shouldn't have to make these kinds of decisions; I'm only thirteen, dammit!' Takato looked at Mr. Hido, who was smiling pleasantly over his shoulder with his hands behind his back as they walked. 'Y'know...I always felt bad about putting that laxative in his coffee last year...Not anymore.'

"Have you made your decision?" Mr. Hido asked as he finally stopped.

"Yeah...I'll feed the rabbits." Takato replied dejectedly.

"Excellent. I'm sure two weeks will be more than enough time for you to work out whatever issues you seem to have with them."

"T-Two weeks?"

"Of course. Feeding the rabbits is easy enough as it is, regardless of your 'hatred' for them. I'm not about to make it even moreso by letting you go after doing it once or twice. Two weeks, non-negotiable." Mr. Hido said firmly, all traces of humor gone for the moment.

"I...Fine." Takato sighed , then started to make his way to the exit.

"Going somewhere?" Mr. Hido asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh...home?" Takato was really starting to hate the principal's evil little smirk.

"After detention, you mean."

"Wha...I still have detention?"

"Mm-hm. The rabbits have already been fed today."

"But...why did you make me walk to the other side of the school?"

"Why indeed..." came Mr. Hido's cryptic and blatantly smug response.

"..." Takato's right eye twitched uncontrollably as visions of the principal laid out on the floor with a broken jaw danced around in his head. However, the thought of being late for detention soon drove all others from his mind. If it was one thing Ms. Uzari hated more than noise and insubordination, it was tardiness.

Giving Mr. Hido a look that could curdle milk, much to the man's amusement, Takato shot off like a Top Fuel dragster down the hall.

Or, at least he would have, were it not for the principal's parting words, "No running in the halls."

Takato stumbled mid-step, but managed to recover before suffering a very painful fall for the second time in two days. His first instinct was to whirl around and give the principal a piece of his mind, but he could hear the sound of the man's dress shoes on the floor heading away from him.

'Seriously, I take back EVERY nice thing I EVER said about that guy!' Takato thought angrily as he half-jogged down the hall. "...You know what? Screw it." and with that, the Matsuki Typhoon was unleashed once again, this time unrestricted by crowded hallways.

(Detention Room)

"Hm, I see that Mr. Matsuki had decided not to join us today." Ms. Uzari said as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with a finger. "I suppose he has a good reason for that?"

"Uh...Last we saw, he was talking to Mr. Hido." Kazu answered.

"Really? Well...His absence can be excused in that case..." Ms. Uzari blinked. She didn't expect them to have a legitimate reason.

"I wish." Takato said as he opened the door and sat his backpack next to his friends'.

It was easy to tell he was in a bad mood, what with the perma-scowl and the tense, needlessly forceful movements. The reason for his anger was anyone's guess, but Kazu and Kenta came to the conclusion that Mr. Hido had added something onto Takato's sentence. Now the question was: why Takato?

'What kind of crap is this? We already got two weeks of A.S.D., with Ms. Uzari, for basically no reason, and now they're tacking more on?' Kazu thought. Looking over at Kenta, he saw a perturbed look that confirmed they were both on the same page.

But neither dared to verbalize their outrage. If Mr. Hido was on some kind of malevolent power trip, the last thing they wanted was to give Ms. Uzari a real reason to get on their backs.

(Shinjuku Park - 7:00pm)

"Ah man," Kenta groaned as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket, "that was my dad, reminding me about my new curfew."

Kazu's body went ridged at the mention of a curfew; he'd forgotten about the one imposed on him.

"Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap!" the visor-wearing boy was a blur of motion, tearing around in all directions like a headless chicken.

"...You got a curfew, too?" Takato asked needlessly.

"..." Kazu stopped dead and turned to level a somewhat creepy deadpan stare on his friend. "You didn't get punished at all, did you?"

"Nope!" Takato beamed. He loved it when he had something to rub in Kazu's face.

"Why do you have to have such understanding parents?" as if by magic, Kazu appeared in front of Takato, their faces uncomfortably close.

"Uh...Maybe it's because I don't try to hide stuff from them?" in Takato's humble opinion, Kazu likely wouldn't have gotten punished so frequently or severely if he told his parents about what happened before the teachers called.

"You _can't_ hide things from your parents; your mom is psychic." Kazu said as he turned away from Takato and hoisted his backpack over his shoulder.

"Which is why I don't even bother trying." Takato replied. "But your dad's mustache gives him ESP, yet you still think you can get away with stuff."

In the past year, Kazu's father had decided to grow a mustache. It had come in surprisingly quick, going from "peach fuzz", to "mutant caterpillar" in just a couple months. Since then, the man seemed to have developed some kind of sixth sense bordering on telepathy. A prime example was just last month when Takato and Kenta had been at Kazu's place for a gaming marathon. Takato had taken a break and went into the kitchen to get a can of grape soda. He hadn't announced his intent, nor the flavor he wanted, yet as soon as he entered the kitchen, Kazu's father was there with a can of grape soda held out to the boy.

Just as Takato had opened his mouth to ask the man how he knew, Hirofumi Shioda gave him a creepy, knowing smile that sent Takato nearly running back to Kazu's room. Kazu's father had always been pretty "out there", which was where Kazu himself got his own eccentric personality from. But on that day, he went from "weird, but cool", to "scary as hell, but cool" in Takato's book.

"Hey wait a minute," Kenta turned to Takato with a confused expression, "you said you don't try to hide things from your mom, yet you agreed to Kazu's crazy mall scheme. What's with that?"

"I...Um...Well...D-Don't you have to get home?" Takato had forgotten about Kazu's plan, and was mentally slapping himself for going along with it.

Instead of seeing the tactic for what it was, Kenta's fear of additional punishment for coming home late fueled a frantic dash towards the nearest park exit.

"I gotta get going, too. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Kazu then rounded on Henry. "Be ready for a rematch." and with that, "The Mastermind" ran off through a patch of bushes, taking a shortcut that Kenta had apparently forgotten about.

"...Telepathic mothers, mustache ESP, the principal being possessed by evil spirits...Never a dull day with you guys, huh?" Henry chuckled.

"Nope. And the evil spirits thing was a joke." Takato replied.

"With the things you guys talk about, it's kinda hard to tell when you're being serious."

"That's Kazu for ya'. I would tell you to just assume that he's joking and roll with it...but that's how you end up getting roped into things that'll get you grounded until you're a legal adult." Takato sighed, he was NOT looking forward to whatever Kazu had planned for the mall. 'Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and he'll forget about it...Yeah, and maybe Pineapplehead _won't_ sic her fluffy, yellow assassin on me next time we meet.'

"Whew, I thought those two would never leave!" Terriermon said as he hopped out of Henry's backpack. "You have no idea how cramped it is in there."

"Sorry."

"Don't say sorry, just get a bigger backpack." Terriermon grumbled, massaging his sore ears.

"Takatomon!" came a sudden jubilant shout as red, black and white blur barreled out of the bushes and tackled Takato to the ground.

"Guilmon's here." Terriermon giggled.

"Thanks, I hadn't noticed!" Takato grunted out after pushing the heavy digimon off. "So, how was your day?"

"It was great, Takatomon!" Guilmon cheered. "I saw a whole bunch of squirrels! But I didn't chase them, or burn them." the reptile added quickly when he saw Takato frown and raise an eyebrow.

"What about eating them?"

"Terriermon..." Henry warned, though he did find the expression on Takato's face pretty funny.

"...You haven't eaten any squirrels, have you?" Takato asked his partner hesitantly.

"Huh? You can eat squirrels?" Guilmon questioned, putting a claw to his lip.

"No. No, you cannot."

"I don't know. Grilled on an open fire, with the right barbeque sauce, I've heard squirrels are delici-" Terriermon paused when Takato glared at him and pulled out a roll of duct tape. "Joking. Eating squirrels is like eating rocks...Rocks that explode after you swallow them."

Takato nodded in agreement, then looked over to Henry expectantly.

"Oh yeah, it's common knowledge that squirrels are tiny, living bombs..." Henry said, trying desperately to hold in his laughter.

"See? Squirrels aren't for eating, either. It would be sorta like swallowing your Pyro Sphere."

"Auu..." Guilmon groaned at the thought.

"Yes, very unpleasant, let's stop talking about it." Takato said quickly. "Anything else happen today? Not involving squirrels or any other woodland rodents, Terriermon excluded?"

"Hey!"

"Uh...Oh! I saw another digimon!"

"You didn't get into a fight, did you?"

"Pretty dumb question, since the park hasn't been burned down." Terriermon said with a huff, none too pleased about the "rodent" remark.

"...Point. So, did you make a new friend?"

"No; he was too noisy and mean." Guilmon frowned at the memory of the short-tempered purple digimon. He never thought something so little could be so big on attitude.

"Noisy and mean, eh? He didn't happen to be purple, did he?"

"How did you know? Oh! Is Takatomon telepathic?"

"Holy cow, he just said 'telepathic', AND used it correctly!" Terriermon gasped, genuinely astonished.

"Terriermon..."

"What? You are gonna stand there and tell me that you're _not_ surprised?"

"..."

"Thought so."

"I guess there really is an Impmon running around." Takato mumbled to himself.

Of course, Terriermon heard him, and had something to say about it. "An Impmon? Great, just great; just about the only digimon with a bigger mouth than mine."

"You think he was the digimon you sensed this morning?" the blue-haired Tamer asked.

"Doubt it. It was a Virus-type, but stronger than any Impmon I've ever met."

"You sensed a digimon?" Takato asked as he turned to Terriermon.

"More or less." the rabbit-like digimon shrugged. "It was just a short pulse, most likely an attack, then it was gone. If you ask me, Renamon got another one."

Both Takato and Henry frowned at that. It was quite disconcerting to know that "Death by Renamon" was such a common occurrence that it was basically the default conclusion for a digimon coming through to their world.

"Well, looks like we'll have something to talk about next time Rika comes after us." Takato said as he sat down on the grass next to Guilmon.

"What, you don't think she's learned her lesson about messing with you and Big Red?" Terriermon asked, giggling at the fact that Renamon, the big, bad digital assassin had gotten her tail handed to her not once, but twice by the "newbie" Guilmon.

"It's not even about that anymore, I don't think. For her, it's personal now." Takato sighed before explaining the situation to his friends. "Remember the guy that helped us avoid the suits yesterday?" getting a nod from Henry, he continued. "Well, it looks like he stole Rika's cell phone, used it to call me, then returned it to her without bothering to erase the last call entry. She redialed, I answered, and now she thinks I had something to do with her phone being stolen."

Henry and Terriermon just stared at Takato, gaping in astonishment at someone having such horrible luck. Tamer and digimon shared a look, then burst out laughing.

Takato wasn't at all amused. "...I was hoping for a little sympathy, and maybe some ideas for a solution...But I suppose this is the next best thing."

"S-Sorry, but..." Henry started, now in tears from laughing so hard. "But this is just...too much!"

"O-Only you, Ta-Takato!" Terriermon guffawed. "Th-This could only h-happen to y-you!"

"...Fine. You two are now officially my accomplices in the dastardly plot to steal Pineapplehead's phone."

"Well, this certainly is a problem." Henry's attitude did a complete one-eighty, as did Terriermon's.

"I'm sure that we can come up with a plan if we put our heads together!"

"That's more like it." Takato smirked.

Guilmon, of course, was completely oblivious to what was going on. But he figured it was something important, since everyone had suddenly gotten so serious.

'Aww, I liked it better when they were laughing.' he thought.

(The Next Day - Shinjuku Junior High School - 3:45pm)

With a bucket full of shredded lettuce and carrots in-hand, Takato shoved open the school's Northern exit door with enough force to rattle the frame. Looking to his left, he spied the, in his opinion, needlessly large enclosure that the rabbits were housed in. It looked much like a greenhouse, with chain link fencing in place of glass. And if Takato had his way, it would be a greenhouse. Delicious garden tomatoes trumped malevolent vermin any day of the week.

But, as was usually the case, Takato didn't have his way, and likely never would when it came to the rabbits. He seemed to be the only person in the entire school who had a problem with them, just like he seemed to be the only person that they had a problem with.

As he walked up to the enclosure, the rabbits caught sight of him and immediately congregated at the door. To anyone else, this would've been seen as indescribably cute; but Takato knew better. The rabbits weren't waiting to be fed, they were waiting for an opportunity to escape. As soon as he opened the door, they would flood out _en masse_, knowing that he couldn't stop them all. And the ones that he did manage to block would make it their mission to shred his pant legs and shoes with their teeth.

"Not today, you glorified rats. Not today!" Takato hissed as he stared the rabbits down.

Not a single one of them so much as flinched. If anything, a couple of them moved a little closer to the door.

The boy contemplated just leaving the bucket on the ground, to taunt the things, and leaving. But then he'd just end up making things worse for himself. Of course, single-handedly losing all of the school's rabbits wouldn't do him any favors, either.

'Damn you, Mr. Hido! Putting me in a position like this...' Takato thought angrily, slowly reaching for the door handle. To make matters worse, both Kazu and Kenta had gotten their punishments "upgraded" for returning home after their imposed curfews. Now they had to go straight home after their school duties were taken care of. 'Well, on the upside, I'll be spending the day with Guilmon.'

Suddenly, the rabbits took a collective look to their right, then dashed over to the far end of the enclosure. Huddled together in absolute terror, some rabbits tried to burrow inside of the pile, while others actually tried to climb up the fencing to the ceiling.

"What the...?" Takato trailed off as he looked to his left, nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw Guilmon standing about two feet away, staring at the rabbits in confusion. "What are you doing here?" the brown-haired Tamer whispered after he got over his shock, frantically looking around for anyone who might see his partner.

"I saw that purple guy again today, and he asked me where you were. I told him that you were feeding rabbits and he said that you were really fighting rabbits because they're really dangerous and like to eat humans!" Guilmon's brow furrowed and he put a claw to his lip in thought. "I don't know what a 'human' is, but I didn't want you to fight the rabbits alone, so here I am!" he then turned his attention back to the white furballs. "But they don't look very scary."

Takato pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. 'Terriermon was right, stuff like this only happens to me.' but, as he went to tell Guilmon that there was nothing to worry about, he had a Light bulb Moment. 'Thank you, Impmon!' "Don't let their looks fool you, boy. Terriermon doesn't look like much, but he's pretty strong, right?" Guilmon nodded in understanding. "Never judge a book by its cover."

"What's a book?"

"...Nevermind. Just know that rabbits, especially _these_ rabbits, are pure evil to the core. But I've been tasked with feeding them, and I'm going to do it. Since there's two of us now, I don't think they'll try anything, but if they start attacking me or try to get out..." Takato looked at the animals and grinned evilly. "You have my permission to burn them."

"Okey-dokey!" Guilmon beamed, the turned a glare on the rabbits, daring them to make a move towards his Tamer.

Takato chuckled as he opened the door and walked into the enclosure. "Hello, rats. Hungry?" he walked over to the metal feeding tray and dumped the contents of the bucket into it. "Good, 'cause after rigorous searching, I found something even lower on the food chain that you guys. Straight from the cafeteria, choke and die."

The rabbits' food was supposed to be fresh produce from the nearby grocery store, but Takato felt they didn't deserve it. So, he cooked up a plan with Kazu, who was stuck on cafeteria duty for the next two weeks as his punishment. The school had served fish tacos for lunch earlier in the day, and their was still literal bucketloads of shredded lettuce and carrots left. Some of it looked to be days old, and was likely tainted like everything else that came out of the school kitchen. So of course, a bag full of the stuff found its way out of the cafeteria and into Kazu's backpack. From there, it found its way into Takato's backpack, and was now in the rabbits' feeding tray.

"Well, it's been fun, rats, but I've gotta go. Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow...and so will he." Takato pointed at Guilmon, who was still glaring at the rabbits. "So behave if you don't wanna get fried. And who knows, you might even get your normal food back if you're good."

As he stepped out of the enclosure and closed the door, Takato suddenly felt like he was being watched. Turning around, he spotted Henry standing there, with Terriermon on his head, giving him an odd look.

"Well...that wasn't creepy at all..." Henry said.

"You don't know these rats." Takato replied.

"I've never had a conversation with them before, but they can't be _that_ bad."

"I'll tell you what I told Guilmon; these things are pure evil, wrapped in a facade of cuteness to lull you into a false sense of security."

"I'll bet." Henry deadpanned, then looked around Takato to see that the rabbits hadn't taken their eyes off of Guilmon and were still cowering in the corner. "If you're done, I think we should leave. They're not going to eat until Guilmon's out of sight."

"Alright, I've just gotta put the bucket back." as he turned around, Takato was greeted by two large, green eyes just inches from his face. He gave a high-pitched yelp and fell flat on his ass while trying to backpeddle away.

Of course, this over-the-top reaction had Henry and Terriermon in stitches, as well as the newcomer.

"Takato fall down, go boom!" Calumon giggled.

"What is this, Sneak-up-on-Takato Day?" Takato raged as he got to his feet and dusted his pants off. He half expected Renamon to show up next and try to take his head off.

"Hey, don't blame us for your lack of situational awareness." Terriermon remarked, though most of his attention was on the strange new digimon that had just shown up.

Takato just grunted and turned to Calumon. "You, stay right there. I'll be right back." he said before running back into the school to return the bucket to its proper place.

"Hey, little guy, what's your name?" Henry asked with a smile as he walked over to the floating white and purple digimon.

"I'm Calumon!" the answer was accompanied by a quick series of loops in the air that ended with Calumon upside down in front of Terriermon. "Who're you?"

"I'm Henry, and this is Terriermon; we're friends of Takato."

"Me too, me too!"

Henry and Terriermon shared a look. If this "Calumon" was really a friend of Takato's, even knowing his name, why hadn't they ever heard of him?

(Thirty Minutes Later - Shinjuku Park)

"Yay!...Yay!...Yay!..." Calumon cheered as he was juggled by Takato.

"Just warn me when you start feeling sick; I don't want to go home smelling like vomit thanks to you. Again."

"Aw, come on, that was a long time ago!" Calumon said.

"A month isn't a long time." Takato countered. "...Well, maybe it is for someone has hyperactive as you."

Henry, who was leaning against one of the walls inside of Guilmon's shed, had a slight frown on his face as he watched the two interact. Takato had told him that not only had he known about Calumon for months, the digimon was living in his house, AND his parents were fine with it! They even knew about Guilmon, and made dinner for him! Needless to say, both Henry and Terriermon were understandably jealous.

"I guess I've gotta take back what I said about Takato only having one kind of luck." Terriermon mumbled.

"Hm. Must me nice to have such understanding parents."

"You haven't even talked to your parents about it!"

"Hey, that isn't exactly something that I can just bring up out of the blue!"

"Come on, do you really think they'd freak out over something as cute as me?"

Henry had to give it to Terriermon, he could be sickeningly cute when he wanted to be, and that would certainly help in keeping his family calm.

"See? You know I'm right. You need to talk to your parents about it, and soon. I'm tired of pretending to be a plush toy even in the privacy of our own home!" Terriermon fumed.

"He's got a point, y'know." Takato said as he tossed Calumon behind his back and over his shoulder, surprising himself with how easy and smooth it was. "You never know unless you try. I mean, my parents didn't believe me when I first started seeing digimon. It took Calumon raiding the donut rack for them to finally accept that they were real."

That wasn't the whole truth, as Takato's parents didn't _really_ accept the existence of digimon until Lillymon showed at their home, having tracked Calumon there. Kinda hard to dispute a six and a half foot tall woman with impossibly large black eyes, vines for hair, a living flower for a hat/helmet, and the ability to turn her hands into energy cannons. But Takato didn't really trust Henry enough to tell him about Lillymon or his other digimon partners.

"I suppose..." Henry trailed off, thinking of possible ways to broach the subject to his parents. 'Maybe I could start off by asking for a pet?'

Seeing Henry's familiar "deep thought" expression and posture, Terriermon decided to drop the subject.

"Anyone up for a game of hide and seek?" he proposed, getting nods and cheers of agreement all around.

Not a single one of them had even the slightest clue that they were being watched.

'Looks like the beginnings of a pretty good team, though Takato seems to be playing it safe.' BlackGatomon thought, her keen ears having picked up everything that the boys and their partners had said. As Calumon, Terriermon, Guilmon and Henry poured out of the shed and took off in different directions, the feline digimon smiled; it seemed Takato had been chosen to do the seeking. 'Have fun, Takato. Things are going to get serious soon enough.' something caught her eye off to her left. 'Maybe sooner than anyone feared...'

BlackGatomon's eyes narrowed as she focused on a single tree about a hundred feet away from Guilmon's shed. Behind the tree, hidden from anyone stepping out of the shed, she saw the telltale distortion of a digimon using the camouflage trick that she'd been taught. She could make out the general shape of the digimon, and it was just about the last one she wanted to see.

'Damn, a Bakemon.' BlackGatomon thought, flexing her claws in preparation of a little pest control.

Now, the average Bakemon was almost laughably weak as far as Champions went. In the Digital World, it wasn't uncommon for other digimon, even Rookies, to hunt them for sport(5). Just one of them wouldn't be a threat, but that was the problem; there was _never_ just one Bakemon. They tended to hang around in packs, ambushing victims and overwhelming them with sheer numbers. They may have been weak individually, but that didn't much matter when you were fighting twenty of them, or more.

But even that wasn't what had BlackGatomon concerned. Bakemon were dumb, and that was putting it nicely. Stalking someone, under active camouflage, wasn't something one of them would think of doing on its own. It being there despite the presence of Guilmon and Terriermon made that even more unlikely, as Bakemon didn't risk confrontation when they were the ones outnumbered.

No, this Bakemon had to be under orders, and that meant there was a fairly powerful digimon pulling the strings.

"Hopefully, it'll just be a couple of Soulmon." BlackGatomon mumbled as she dropped from her tree and activated her own active camo.

_"Bah, this sucks!" _ Bakemon hissed to himself. _"What's the point of following the brat? Why can't we just kill him now? Do they think we can't handle a couple of Rookies?"_

"'They' would be right." that was the only warning the ghost digimon received before something pounced on it from behind. Just after the object made contact, Bakemon found himself being teleported for the second time in the day.

A split second later, he was floating in the middle of a dark tunnel.

_"Alright, who the he-AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" _Bakemon shrieked as electricity coursed through his body, lighting up every single nerve in a surge of white-hot agony.

"No matter how many times I delete your kind, it still surprises me that you can feel pain." BlackGatomon said as she stood over the downed Bakemon, her right paw still crackling with electrical energy. "You'd think that, being a ghost and all, you wouldn't have a nervous system."

_"W-What do you want?" _Bakemon wheezed out.

"Information." BlackGatomon replied. "I want to know how many of your kind are here, why you're here, and who you're working for."

_"Fine. In order: Nunya. Damn. Business." _Bakemon laughed, mentally patting himself on the back for such a clever comeback. Oh, if only that bitch of a Soulmon were there to have heard it.

Of course, it's not so clever to say something like that when you're facedown on a concrete floor, with a digimon capable of frying you standing less than two feet away.

Unamused, BlackGatomon's tail lashed about behind her, showing her irritation, before she swung it around and laid it on the other Champion's "skin".

"Hm, a ghost with a deathwish...Is that ironic?" she adopted a "thinking pose" before channeling electricity through her tail and into the Bakemon, causing him to scream once more.

_"I'M NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING!" _Bakemon managed to yell, surprising his tormentor.

"Y'know, in my time, I've destroyed _hundreds_ of your kind. But not one of them was as stubborn as you." a diabolical glint shown in BlackGatomon's eyes. "That's why I don't think it's really you who's being so defiant. I'll bet that, in reality, you want nothing more than to tell me everything you know and save yourself from a metric ass-ton of pain. But something, or some_one_, is keeping you from spilling the beans."

Bakemon tensed, making BlackGatomon think she hit the nail on the head. However, it turned out to be a sign of the surprise attack that followed a second later.

_"Poison Breath!" _Bakemon exhaled a plume of foul, purple smog right in BlackGatomon's face.

On instinct, she closed her eyes, covered her nose and mouth, and held her breath. While that protected her from the spore-like vapors, it left her vulnerable to the follow-up attack. Through the smog, a monstrous hand plowed into BlackGatomon, two of its claws impaling her through the torso, and smashed her against the wall of the tunnel.

_"Hehehe, and you call ME stupid!" _Bakemon cackled as he floated up off of the floor, his Zombie Claw still outstretched and keeping his prey pinned. _"What kind of idiot just stands there, so close to a live enemy?"_

Bakemon's celebration was cut short when the smog from his first attack cleared, revealing that something had gone horribly wrong. His hand was stuck in the wall and the BlackGatomon was nowhere to be found. It didn't seem possible; he KNEW he'd hit her! But there wasn't a single bit of evidence to support that supposed fact. Not even the smallest bit of data floating around, waiting to be absorbed.

_"Damn it all!" _ Bakemon growled. _"What kinda shit is this? You drag me down to a damn sewer, acting all big and bad, then you run awa-!" _he was quickly silenced by and electrical shock so powerful that he couldn't even cry out.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what kind of _idiot_ just stands around screaming at an enemy he can't even find?" BlackGatomon mocked, then took a look at her right paw. "Well, that's a surprise; you can bleed." she said as she shook the disgusting purple-ish fluid from her claws. Said fluid turned to data upon contact with the floor, which she unconsciously absorbed.

This new discovery changed things quite a bit, and most certainly for the worst.

Since joining up with the being known only as "The Boss", BlackGatomon had learned many things. These ranged from relatively trivial, to things so momumental that they'd turn the whole of the Digital World on its head should they become public knowledge. One of these was what happened to most digimon when they reached a certain age. Now that, in itself was common knowledge, but no one had ever come up with an answer to how it happened. The Boss provided that answer.

When you took away all the fantastic elements, Digital World was created to perfectly mimic the Human World. To this end, normal animals, natural weather patterns, and even tectonic plate movement were put into it. Water was painstakingly made to perfectly replicate the properties of real water, as was air, wood, stone and metal. Everything was made to be identical to its Human World counterpart, down to the nearest decimal point. That included the digimon that inhabited it.

According to the Boss, Digimon were originally only supposed to have the need to eat, drink, sleep and, ahem, release waste. But, somewhere along the line, someone decided that _everything_ needed to be perfect. Once a digimon had been alive long enough, its data began to mimic every property of a living being. Blood, muscles, organs, bones; all of it. Digicores became actual hearts, and artificial neural networks became actual brains(6).

Normally, this process took years to even begin in the Digital World, and several months to complete after that. But, when a digimon crossed over into the Human World, it took mere weeks from start to finish. That was why some digimon went through so much trouble to find a way through, even when they didn't really know why: an innate desire to become "real".

Knowing that, BlackGatomon deduced that the Bakemon had to have been in the Human World for at least three weeks if he could bleed. Afterall, a Bakemon that old was unheard of in the Digital World, for obvious reasons. And if that was the case, it meant that the Boss' fears had been well-founded; he'd waited too long to make a move.

'I've gotta get this info back to the Boss. We just might be two steps behind instead of two steps ahead.' BlackGatomon thought with a deep frown. 'But first thing's first, gotta find the nest and destroy it. Hopefully, I'll find out who's using these clowns in the process.' she then used her foot to flip the Bakemon over. "Looks like you're going into shock." seriously, who thought it was a good idea to make ghost digimon organic? "Don't worry, I'll finish you off soon, since you've just about outlived your usefulness. I just need one more thing from you..." BlackGatomon trailed off as her eyes began to give off a bright pink glow.

(?)

Within the basement of a vacant office building on Shinjuku's West side, a lone Soulmon appeared to be meditating in the darkness. Anyone who didn't know better would think the creature was asleep.

Suddenly, it's body jerked, as if it really had been asleep and had woken from a nightmare.

_"Damn." _Soulmon muttered. _"One of the links has been cut." _she wasn't at all concerned by that particular link being her "partner". In her mind, if he was dumb enough to get caught, and too weak to fight off his assailant, then he deserved whatever happened to him. _"Meh, no need to trouble Lord Phantomon with something so trivial." _Soulmon then went back to monitoring the other Bakemon connections.

She was mildly concerned that she hadn't been able to see just who or what had gotten to her partner. Somehow his signal had weakened without her noticing, and by the time she saw that he was in trouble, it was too late. Of course, Soulmon wouldn't have wasted any effort trying to help him; she'd had enough of bailing him out. But she could've at least seen what happened through his eyes.

_**"Is something wrong?" **_a familiar voice, calm, cool and sinister, echoed through Soulmon's mind, thoroughly startling her.

_"L-Lord Phantomon! N-No, nothing's wrong, sir!" _Soulmon stuttered, forgetting that there was no need for her to speak out loud.

_**"But I have sensed that one of the Bakemon, specifically the one I partnered with you, has had his connection terminated."**_

_"Y-Yes, but it's nothing to be concerned about; which is why I chose not to contact you...I thought that you would have more pressing matters to attend to."_

_**"While I do appreciate your thoughtfulness, you do not decide what is beneath my concern and what is not." **_there was no detectable edge or underlying threat to his words, but Soulmon knew better. That was a warning, and it was most likely only one she'd ever get.

_"Understood, Lord Phantomon! Forgive me!" _Soulmon all but whimpered.

_**"If that Bakemon was deleted, then you do have a problem on your hands." **_Lord Phantomon said, seemingly ignoring his subordinates fearful apology.

_"I...I don't understand, sir."_

_**"Then perhaps I was wrong to put you in charge." **_Soulmon winced, but remained silent, sensing that her Lord wasn't finished. _**"If he was destroyed, then that means he came into contact with a hostile digimon of at least moderate strength. It is common knowledge that Bakemon prowl in packs, so it is safe to assume that the enemy will now be on the lookout for more; perhaps going as far as to actively hunt for them. Now that is bad enough in itself, but the alternative is even worse."**_

Soulmon couldn't help but feel that she was being talked down to, but didn't dare let even the slightest bit of discontent enter her thoughts.

_"Alternative?"_

_**"There is a chance that the connection was not terminated via Bakemon's destruction, but rather cancelled out by a mental attack. If that is the case, then it is possible that this new enemy now knows the whereabouts of your base." **_Lord Phantomon explained.

_"Um...Sir, with all due respect, I still don't see a reason to be concerned. Even if this digimon does know about this place, it would be suicide for anything short of an Ultimate to come barging in here. The Bakemons' strength lies in numbers, and if it's one thing they've got here, it's numbers." _Soulmon may have constantly belittled and mocked the Bakemon, but even she would admit she couldn't take on any more than ten of them at once and have a chance. That number went down to five if some of the older, stronger and comparatively smarter ones jumped in.

It was when she thought about things like that, that she was thankful for Lord Phantomon assigning five other Soulmon to assist her in commanding and controlling the Bakemon horde.

_**"And how do you know that it was **_**not**_** an Ultimate that attacked him? And even if that is not the case, who is to say that this mystery assailant will show up alone? Remember, there are two sides to this conflict, and that Bakemon may very well have had the misfortune of meeting a powerful agent of the opposition."**_

Soulmon blinked slowly. Something like that had never even crossed her mind. Though, who could blame her, considering that more than three weeks had passed with not so much as a minor skirmish.

_"...What do I do, then?" _Soulmon asked, finding that she didn't really know what to do now that things had potentially gotten serious.

_**"The way I see it, you have two options at the moment. You can hope that either the enemy has not discovered your base, or that they are indeed weak and foolish, and will be walking to their death. Or, you can assume the worst and abandon the base."**_

_"But what do I do with the Bakemon? I can't very well take them all with me." _the building had been prepared with spells that kept anything outside from detecting the digimon within. But if Soulmon were to take all the remaining Bakemon outside to find a new base of operations, every remotely powerful digimon within fifty miles would be on their ghostly asses within an hour.

_**"Well, you and your colleagues could always just delete the Bakemon. That would make it far easier to move about undetected, and you would get a respectable power boost out of it as well. A 'win-win', as they say. We can always 'recruit' more of them to bolster the ranks if needed. But, to be honest, I do not know how useful they will be if the opposition is done biding its time." **_

Soulmon actually cringed at her Lord's words. She hardly valued the lives of the Bakemon, but to hear someone talk about wiping them all out so casually...It was unnerving, to say the least. But that's just how Lord Phantomon was; cold, logical and rational. At least he gave her a choice in the matter, something many digimon couldn't say about their leaders.

_"I...I need some time to think, Lord Phantomon..." _

_**"Of course. But whatever you decide, just make sure to get yourself and the other Soulmon out, should the enemy prove too strong. The Bakemon may be a mere drop in the bucket, but you and your kind are so much more valuable. It would be a shame to lose any of you." **_

_"Understood, sir." _Soulmon felt her Lord's presence fade from her mind and sighed deeply. _"Damned Bakemon. Even in death, you're causing problems for me...But at least that's one nuisance I don't have to worry about anymore."_

XXXX

And there you go!

Despite the lack of action and whatnot, I feel pretty good about this chapter. But all you adrenaline junkies out there have nothing to worry about, for the next chapter will have fights galore! BlackGatomon vs Soulmon, Guilmon and Terriermon vs Vilemon, Renamon vs Allomon, Renamon/Kyubimon vs Dokugumon, and perhaps a bonus! Though, with how long it takes me to update, maybe you do have something to worry about...

Moving on.

(1) Takato may be a nice guy now, but he used to be a violent little bastard. Talked more with his fists than his mouth.

(2) I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but Sayuri's family name is Davis' from the Adventure 02 series flipped around(Miyamoto - Motomiya). This is pure coincidence, as I didn't even remember Davis' family name when I came up with Sayuri's character.

(3) Seriously, that movie sucked.

(4) Told you there would be blood.

(5) Think RPG level grinding. Also, I'm not really sure how powerful Bakemon are Digimon canon, but in this fic they're basically cannon fodder. I also don't know how powerful Soulmon are, or if they can really control Bakemon. But they can here, and that's all the matters.

(6) And now you know how and why digimon will bleed in this story. Also, I don't know what really serves as a Digimon's brain, but here it's artificial neural networks, sort of like the "Neural Net CPUs" in Terminators.

Well, I think that's about it. As usual; if you've got questions, ask away.

Jason Out!


End file.
